


How it's Meant to Be

by Tarvera



Series: Meant to Be [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Peter Hale, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Friend Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Beta Derek Hale, Canon-Typical Violence, Good Alpha Peter Hale, Good Friend Allison Argent, Multi, Pack Bonding, Pack Building, Season/Series 01, Slow Build Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Werewolf Stiles Stilinski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:41:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 44,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26177380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarvera/pseuds/Tarvera
Summary: Peter didn’t mean to become the alpha, Derek had never meant to come back to Beacon Hills, and Stiles hadn’t meant to become a werewolf. Just because you don’t mean for something to happen doesn’t mean it’s not something good. Sometimes the things we think are the worst possible scenario end up being the best things to happen to us. Maybe, just maybe, these things were actually meant to be.A season 1 AU starting from episode 9, ‘Wolf’s Bane’ where Peter bites Stiles that night in the hospital. This starts a chain reaction of events that leads to everything playing out very differently than canon. Peter learns how to be a better alpha, Derek learns how to let people back into his life and Stiles finds out what pack can really mean.
Relationships: Allison Argent & Stiles Stilinski, Derek Hale & Stiles Stilinski, Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Meant to Be [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918180
Comments: 222
Kudos: 1399





	1. I didn't Mean for This to Happen

**Author's Note:**

> After extensive research into everyone’s birthdays and ages I discovered in order for everyone to be able to drive in season 1 they had to all in junior year, not sophomore (This also helps make a lot more sense on how Jackson is the captain of a varsity sports team). So, Scott, Stiles and Jackson are 17 when this story starts, Lydia is 16, and Allison turned 18 in Jan. Derek is 22 and Peter is 34. 
> 
> On timeline: canon timeline is a mess, if season 2 really happened only days after season 1 ended then they had three full moons happen in two months. I’ve adjusted that to follow along with the actual full moon schedule for Jan-Feb 2011 (which is when season one was supposedly taking place). It won’t affect this story much as the whole story pretty much only covers a week.
> 
> Tagging this as Peter/Stiles but this whole story only covers about a week of time so definitely more of a pre-relationship. Though the relationship building between Peter and Stiles is absolutely central to the plot. I hope to write a sequel where their relationship can go even further. 
> 
> Story is almost completely finished. I just need to edit and clean up the ending, which is not cooperating.

“You must be Stiles.” 

He had thought he had known fear before, the night in the school with the alpha chasing them, feeling like he was a single second away from being ripped to pieces. But this cold and calculating look he was being given now, made him know more fear than he had thought possible. He desperately tried to focus, shoving aside the impending panic attack, and trying to think of what he could do to possibly get out of this alive. 

Peter Hale smiled, his eyes lighting up red, as Stiles stumbled backwards. Turning around (to do what he didn’t really know, he knew there was no way to outrun this) he almost smacked straight into a nurse. 

“Shit, oh shit. Then you...and he...oh my god, I’m gonna die.” The words came falling out as, even in his panic, his brain was slotting all the pieces in. Before his body could catch up to his brain there was a hand on his shoulder shoving him into the wall and Peter Hale, still smiling, was now mere inches away from his face.

“Tell me, Stiles, what has that mind of yours put together here. I can practically...taste how hard you are thinking right now.” 

It seemed even this soul curshing fear could not keep him from word vomiting, “Oh my god, you are such a creep. I mean in a totally not crazy or weird way in that I’m not judging what you taste at all or anything just you know it could sound creepy but you know, not to--” He cut himself off abruptly as he felt claws slicking their way through his jacket and shirt and prick his skin. 

Peter leaned in even closer and practically purred in his ear. “Don’t stop, it’s remarkably refreshing to hear someone so completely unfiltered. But, I do want to know what you’ve learned, sooner would be better.” 

Twisting his head to avoid the bright red gaze he tried to take as deep of breaths as he could with an alpha werewolf practically plastered against him. “Umm...ok, yeah...well, I mean I already knew whomever was doing this was going after or trying to find those responsible for the fire. I mean, arson investigator, convicted or suspected arsons, chemistry teacher who would know how to start fires. I just, I should have known it was you but hey, coma, can’t believe I missed it…” 

“Very good Stiles, it’s nice to see someone has been paying attention to more than just the outward appearances.” Peter’s face was almost touching him at this point and the wolf’s other hand had reached over and grabbed his right wrist while those claws were still digging into his left shoulder. He tried to angle his body away only for the alpha’s grip to tighten, he made a strangled whimper as he froze. 

A low snarl came through the hall. Opening his eyes he felt a small burst of hope go through him. Derek was making his way towards them, the nurse jumped in between but before she could even do anything Derek slammed his elbow against her face and she crumbled to the ground. 

“Let him go.” 

Peter chuckled and turned towards Derek. His claws retracted out of Stiles’ shoulder but the tight grip on the wrist didn’t loosen. “Now, Derek, that wasn’t very nice. She is my nurse after all.” 

“She’s a psychotic bitch helping you kill people.” 

“Helping me heal. Someone had to since my pack and alpha, left me.” The words were mildly said but there was a coldness to them that made Stiles’ heart clench with dread. 

“Is that why you did it? Is that why you killed her? Because we left you? We were young and scared and there were hunters after us.” 

“No. Derek. I killed her because she was an intruder on my territory. Because I had been left to rot and slowly piece myself together cell by cell, in constant pain with no relief or the bonds of the pack to stabilize me.” Peter’s voice had lost the mildness and was amping up now. “She left me, breaking the pack bond. Do you have any idea what that’s like? Lying here day after day, alone.” Derek flinched and looked away and Peter softened his tone but now Stiles could hear emotion in the words. “I didn’t mean to kill her, Derek, please…” 

Derek looked up, flicking his gaze to Stiles for a moment then back to Peter. The younger wolf looked devastated. Slowly he moved towards Peter again. “I...didn’t want to leave you...but I couldn’t, I couldn’t...I’m sorry.” 

Letting go of Stiles’ wrist, Peter closed the distance to drag Derek into a hug. Stiles knew he should move, try to take advantage of the distraction but his legs felt like jelly and his wrist felt numb. He was worried if he took so much as a step he’d collapse right there. So he waited, trying to take deep breaths to get his heart rate under control while the two wolves held each other. He thought maybe he should feel relieved but there were still too many unknowns and Derek hadn’t exactly proven himself to be a paragon of not hurting Stiles. The throbbing feeling on his forehead from the earlier face slam into the jeep’s steering wheel was proof of that. 

The two wolves pulled apart and Peter turned back towards Stiles. All his good work at getting his heart under control disappeared completely as the alpha moved back towards him. He gulped and shot a pleading look towards Derek. The younger wolf made a hesitant step in his direction and said, “Peter?” Peter stopped, flicking his eyes from Stiles and Derek, before smiling again. 

“Don’t be concerned nephew. I’m not going to hurt the boy. Not when he’s been of so much help to my pack already.” 

“What...?” 

“Oh, don’t be so modest, Stiles, I know it was you who helped Derek when that bitch shot him. Without you, Scott never would have gotten that bullet. I also know it was you who helped Scott control himself and you who convinced Scott to help Derek as he ran from the police and hunters.” While he was talking Peter had moved closer again, stopping just short of actually touching Stiles. 

“Well...yeah, I mean, it was the decent thing to do...I’m not going to leave someone dieing from a magic bullet on the side of road and it was our fault anyways about the police thing...I’ve been helping, of course I’ve been helping. Scott is my best friend and I just want him to be ok, and you know, not stuck full of arrows or poisonous bullets or killed by crazy alphas…” Wincing he cut himself off but instead of getting angry Peter laughed. 

“I do like you Stiles.” 

Stiles opened his mouth, but before he could get out a response, Peter moved. Damn, he was fast. One moment relaxed, the next a warm body was pressed flat against Stiles, a hand wrenching at the collars of his shirts and jacket, then a sharp pain shot through him. Crying out he tried to wrench away but there was no moving the alpha. Another hand had dipped up under his shirt by his hip and a warm hand touched his skin. Whimpering Stiles clutched at the fabric of Peter’s jacket and let his head thunk back against the wall. Slowly, the pain receded and Stiles felt his mind returning to the moment though everything was still fuzzy around the edges. 

Peter remained pressed against him, one hand warm against bare skin and the other wrapped around his back holding him up. The man’s face was pushed into Stiles’ neck and shoulder and damn, that should not feel as good as it is. He let his head fall forward onto Peter’s shoulder not trusting his legs to work well enough yet to get up. Peter let out a low rumble of approval and his arms tightened around Stiles. 

Part of Stiles just wanted to stay there wrapped in the alpha’s arms but his brain was quickly starting to calculate and put together all the clues to what had just happened. The shock brought clarity back and movement quickly followed. Making a slightly strangled noise he wrenched himself sideways and shoved at Peter. The man let him go this time and Stiles stumbled away a hand flying up to his shoulder and neck. Meeting something sticky there he pulled back and saw his hand was covered in blood. Peter was watching him with an amused smile on his face while he nonchalantly wiped blood off his face. Blood, Stiles’ blood, from him biting Stiles. 

“Creepy ass fucker, why’d you do that?” 

Peter rolled his eyes, “Now, Stiles, you are smart enough to know exactly why I bit you. So why don’t you tell me why?” 

Shaking slightly Stiles shot a glance over at Derek who met his gaze for a second before looking guiltily back down at the floor tiles. Looking back at Peter Stiles glared at him, mind racing.

“You need betas to be strong, and you aren’t done with your revenge so you’ll need more help. I’ve already shown I can put things together and I can get access to my dad’s case files so I’ll probably be useful there.” He paused, putting his thoughts together, his mind making connections despite his desire to just say fuck you and try and storm out. “And...with me you are more likely to get Scott to join you too, but even if he doesn’t join, you know I’ll still help you just so you don’t go after anyone else.” 

“Very good Stiles. You know, I had no idea this night was going to go as well as it did. Now, let’s go double check those security cameras of the hall to make sure they didn’t catch any of this, get you cleaned up and get all our ducks in a row for my next move.” 

Feeling extremely reluctant but knowing that for now he needed to go along with Peter’s plans Stiles made his way over to the computer swiping a bunch of wet wipes to get the blood off his hands. Once that was taken care of and Peter was checking on his nurse Stiles logged into the computers and found the security camera access. He sighed slightly when he saw there was no additional login to view it. Beacon Hills was truly small town minded when it came to this sort of thing. Pulling up the footage from that night, he saw that this hallway didn’t actually have a camera, so the only view anyone would see would be of the entrance. 

Looking up just as Peter came over to him with more wipes and started cleaning off Stiles’ neck and shoulder while looking at the security footage himself. “Well, that makes things easier. You can just leave it there.” 

“What about Derek? In case someone looks at it and sees that he came in.” 

“It’s unlikely anyone will check and besides I have a plan in case that happens.” Both Derek (who had come over to Stiles other side) and Stiles looked up at Peter confused. The alpha simply smiled at them both and finished placing the bandage on Stiles’ shoulder. 

Stiles rolled his eyes, “Fine, don’t share with the class your secret villain plans. Just don’t expect me to always figure out what you are doing and go along with it. Sometimes, dude, you’ll have to use your words.” 

Peter tugged lightly on Stiles’ ear with the barest hint of claw. “Don’t call me dude and I’ll think about sharing some of my ‘villain’ plans in a little bit. First though, we have another beta to track down.” 

Flinching away from the claws Stiles got up and grumbling slightly under his breath he followed the alpha. Derek trailed behind them both as they headed out to Stiles’ jeep. Checking his phone Stiles grimaced. He had about 20 texts and 3 missed calls from Scott, and 4 missed calls from his dad. Giving Peter a slightly nervous look he dialed up his dad. It was picked up almost immediately which was never a good sign.

“Where are you?” 

“Hey dad! Um, so, funny story…” 

“Damnit kid, I was this close to calling my guys and putting out an alert to find you. You can’t just disappear like that when we have a murderer on the loose. You need to be more responsible than this.” 

“Sorry, I’m sorry, I was at home and researching and I may have taken too much adderall and got on one of my focus things, you know? And then I just shut my eyes for like two seconds but I must have fallen asleep or something, but yeah, I’m so sorry, I’m on my way right now.” His dad’s heavy sigh in response was worse than getting yelled at and he ducked his head around to hide the tears threatening to form. 

“We’ll talk about this later. I had to leave the game anyways and head into the station. Got some new leads to work on. I’ll be late tonight.” 

“Ok, dad...I’m sorry.” 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

Trying to shake off the conversation he flung himself into the driver seat to find Peter already settled into shotgun with a growly looking Derek in the back. 

“So uh, school huh? You think maybe we could table that idea for a different day or you know, like never? Just a lot of people at the school and wouldn’t want to activate any of your murder rage…” 

Peter gave him a distinctly unimpressed look and said mildly, “Start the car and drive Stiles.” 

“Fine. Fine.”

Thanking all the possible wolf deities out there that the drive to the school was only 5 minutes long so the most awkward car ride of his life was not prolonged any longer then it was. He pulled in and drove the car around to the far end parking lot away from the rest of the cars so hopefully no one would notice them. Putting the car into part he gave Peter a sideways look, debating how likely he was to get his head ripped off for pushing the alpha any further tonight. Even though all his instincts were now telling him that Peter wouldn’t hurt him, the logical side of his brain still had the red klaxons blaring loudly. It was a very strange set of conflicting signals he was getting from himself and he really didn’t like it. Before he had gathered up his nerve to speak again he felt Peter’s fingers pulling at his collar. 

“Hey! Du--I mean--” 

“Just checking how the bite is doing, it’s already healing. That’s very good, I knew you’d be a strong wolf.” 

“Great. All the better to accidentally kill and eat my friends.” 

“Don’t be melodramatic Stiles.” 

“Melodramatic? Hey, who was there with Scott when he was going all moon rage on my ass and trying to eat the first person he saw? Oh that’s right, me. So yeah, I know exactly how this goes.” 

Peter’s hand moved from the bite wound to gripping the back of his neck while his thumb ran soothingly up and down the side of his throat. Stiles could feel his whole body relax with the movement, which, damnit body, this is a dangerous predator, stop wanting cuddles. Peter smiled almost if he could tell what Stiles was thinking. 

“You shouldn’t worry about that because unlike Scott you’ll have me with you. I…” He sighed, “I have a lot of regrets from earlier when I was not processing well. When I bit Scott I barely knew what I was doing. My instincts had completely taken over and I was so newly an alpha, the urge to make a pack overrode any rational thought I was capable of. I needed that bond to anchor me and it helped, but because it wasn’t mutual and he was fighting it, I wasn’t able to use it like I should have. It left me enough reason to work on my revenge but rational thought came too slowly.” 

Stiles was staring fixedly at the jeep’s dash resisting the urge to drum his fingers on the steering wheel. The worst part of all this was that it made sense. Based on what Stiles had been compiling on werewolf behavior from his own observations on Scott and Derek and the little Derek had shared with them it made complete sense. He twisted slightly in his seat to look at Derek who was moodily staring out into the darkness. 

“You’ve been awfully quiet back there sourwolf, have anything to add?” When Derek fixed his glare back on Stiles. Stiles just stared back until Derek shifted and turned his glare back out of the window. 

“He’s right. About pack bonds and it fits with what I thought about how the alpha was behaving with Scott.” 

Peter hummed, obviously pleased with Derek’s agreement. “Now it will be different. With two betas accepting me it is already easier for me to retain control. I have some plans in motion that my nurse, Jennifer, was able to put in play, and now I’ll be able to complete them.” 

“You said mutual though and that part of the problem with Scott was that the bite wasn’t mutual. Well, newsflash, but what happened back there and you biting me, was not mutual.” The alpha’s hand tightened slightly on Stiles’ neck. He froze heart beating harder wondering if maybe he had pushed this too far. But just as quickly Peter’s hand loosened and went back to the soothing movements. 

“You are correct. However, you did accept me as you alpha, even as I was biting you I could feel your acceptance. Some part of you knew what was happening, an instinct in you, I believe. I was always going to turn you Stiles. It was your scent I caught that night in the woods that led me to Scott. I’m just glad even the small sanity I gained back from that gave me the patience to wait as long as I did for you.” 

“I...I don’t know how to take that.” 

“You don’t have to take it as anything. There are some humans that are simply born to be wolves. It calls to alphas and gives them guidance on who to turn if that is the way a pack needs to be built.” 

The alpha pulled Stiles in then tucking him into the wolf’s chest as he took deep breaths of the boy’s scent. Stiles gave into it as the wolf’s scent filled his own senses. He could hear the steady heartbeat of his alpha, smell the deep scent of wood and trees under the layers of hospital. He felt surrounded and safe in a way he had not felt in years. When Peter released him he had to work to push himself up, and he let out a small involuntary whimper at the feeling of loss. Peter smiled at him, grabbing his chin to rub their cheeks together briefly before letting go completely. 

“See, instincts, Stiles. Now, you should probably go to your game, or what’s left of it. Bring Scott over to the west side of the school when it is over and we can all have a chat.” 

Not trusting his voice he nodded in return and shot a look at Derek before tumbling out of the car and jogging towards the lacrosse field. He didn’t entirely trust himself (or want to face the coach's wrath after the emotional roller coaster of a night) so he chose to hang out at the edge of the field just under the bleachers and wait for the game to finish. He felt twitchier than usual and knew it was in part due to his new senses coming online. Everything was slightly too loud and too bright, but whenever it threatened to overwhelm him he would reach back and remember Peter’s heartbeat and scent which seemed to pull him back and ground him. 

There was still about a fourth of the game left which was good because it also gave him time to start processing. For whatever reason any panic at the thought of becoming a werewolf seemed to be either holding off or wasn’t going to happen. Thinking through it, he decided it was mostly because he had always known it was possible that he would also get bitten. Either by accident or on purpose, he was never going to be completely safe from that possibility. The rest of the information made sense and even though part of him was still horrified about the murders, there was another darker part of him that didn’t care. These men had actively participated in the murder of eight people, some of whom had been children. He had seen the case file, the burnt, unrecognizable bodies and charred bones. The thing was, he did want to help and he knew he would. He did wonder if he would be able to convince Peter to arrest instead of kill the Argents, because if the alpha wanted Scott to join them, killing all the Argents wasn’t in the cards. 

These thoughts were finally interrupted by the whistle signaling the end of the game. He grinned, the team had won, good. Watching the cheering team go back inside the school he snuck around to a side door and slipped in. He just needed to avoid Coach, and well, Jackson too if possible. Oh god, Jackson, he had forgotten about the bully with all this going on. Shit. The idiot was going to be even more pissed if he found out Stiles was now in the club and he wasn’t. Making a mental note to bring up Jackson to Peter he tried to take a deep breath and see if he could focus enough to hear anything going on in the locker rooms. 

The first try was so overwhelming he had to sit down or fall over in panic. His second try went slightly better and he could pick out phrases here and there. On his third he heard Danny saying ‘Thanks McCall’ and he heard Scott! Jumping up and pumping his fist in victory, he of course completely lost the conversation. Oops. Settling back down he heard Danny leave, and then most of the others drifted out as well. And there was Jackson, yes, one less problem to deal with. Blasting through the door to the locker room he immediately started gagging at the worst smells he had ever smelled in his life. Holy shit, how did Scott handle this? His estimation of his best friend went up one notch. 

“Stiles!” Scott grabbing him broke him out of his freak out on how gross locker rooms are and he grabbed back wide eyed. 

“Dude, oh my god, dude.” 

“Where were you? I was worried and your dad was pissed.” 

“Uh yeah, shit, I know, I talked to him but that’s not important right now.” 

“Did you figure out who sent the text? Do we know who the alpha is?” 

Stiles winced and pulled away slightly from Scott. Shit, he really had not thought this part through at all. Way to go brain, thinking of everything that had happened and revenge and murder but ignore the part where you have to tell your best friend that the crazy alpha isn’t so crazy and well, you can’t kill him. 

“Stiles? Hey, what happened. I’m freaking out here.” 

“Yes...and yes to your questions...it’s just, hey. You know you are my best friend, my brother right? Like I would never ever do anything if I thought it wasn’t the best thing for you?” 

“Of course. But dude, now I’m really freaking out.” 

Stiles rubbed both hands on his buzzcut and started pacing nervously. “Ok, so, well...um, a lot happened and I need you to hear me the whole way out, ok? Yeah. Ok.” He started to explain how he and Derek got to the hospital and how they figured it out it was Peter with Scott’s eyes getting wider as he went on, when he got to the part about the bite he froze before talking again.  
“And then, well..then...he bit me bro.” 

“What? No. No. No. Stiles, tell me you’re joking.” 

“I really wish I was joking...he just did it before I even realized that was the plan. And then he was talking all about betas and sanity and needing stability. I just...I don’t know what to think anymore. This is all so messed up.” 

Scott stood silent for way too long after Stiles finished talking. He kept biting his lip to keep himself from continuing to spew words out of his mouth. Finally, Scott moved over and dragged Stiles into a hug. Relief poured through him and he eagerly fell into the hug gripping Scott back as hard as he could. Scott pulled back slightly and looked at him again. 

“We are going to figure this out. And you have me, you were there for during all of this and I’m going to be there for you. I just, Stiles, I’m scared. 

“Yeah, me too.” Trying to get his emotions back under control he winced slightly when he saw what time it was. “Um, so I’m supposed to take you to him. He and Derek are waiting back behind the school.” 

A low growl escaped Scott before he nodded shortly and went to grab his gym bag. Together the two boys made their way out of the school and towards the edge of the forest. Scott was radiating tension which was not helping Stiles own nerves at all. As they got nearer Stiles was able to make out Derek’s broody form just under the first of the trees. Peter, the dramatic bastard, was half lying, half sitting with his back against a tree and his hands folded neatly on his stomach. A small smirk was across his face, as the boys got within a few feet of him he let his eyes blaze bright red for a moment before smoothly getting to his feet. 

“It’s nice to finally meet you properly Scott. Apologies are in order I believe for the...trauma, I have forced you to endure the past few weeks.” Scott hands clenched into fists, Stiles shot him a worried look then switched to giving Peter a half hearted glare. Peter just kept talking, ignoring both of them. “I completely understand your hesitance to trust me. I do hope you gave Stiles a chance to explain the circumstances behind my ill foreseen actions?” 

“Yes. He told me all about you not being in your ‘right mind’. Were you in your right mind tonight when you bit Stiles?” 

“Ah, yes, well...I’ll be truthful with you as I was with Stiles. I have been steadily gaining my sanity back though my control as of earlier tonight was yet to be where I would desire it. Turning Stiles was an act of, shall we say, impulse.” 

“Dude...” Stiles muttered, “Impulse.” He rolled his eyes and was gratified to notice Derek doing the same. 

Peter shot him a look which he correctly interpreted as a ‘shut up Stiles’ look, he got them frequently enough in his life to know one when he saw it. Scott was still radiating tension and his eyes were flickering yellow off and on. Peter took slow steps towards the now second newest werewolf in Beacon Hills. Scott tensed but held his ground. 

“Right mind or not, you are still a murderer who killed his own niece, who wants to keep killing people.” 

“Only the ones responsible. The ones who burned my family alive and left me comatose for 6 years as my body had to heal itself cell by cell. Every moment was agony.” 

“I don’t care, I don’t care why you did it or you will keep doing it. I won’t help you and I won’t let you use Stiles either.” 

“I think you’ll find that Stiles is completely capable of making his own decisions and conclusions. You, however, need to learn some empathy, Scott.” Peter’s eyes turned bright red and he sunk his claws into the back of Scott’s neck. Scott’s eyes rolled back as Peter retracted his claws then Scott collapsed. 

“What’d you do?” Stiles dropped next to his friend frantically checking him over as the boy convulsed on the ground. 

“He’ll be fine. I simply gave him some of my memories of that night. Maybe now he’ll understand when Derek tells him hunters are dangerous.” 

“I’m pretty sure the arrows and wolfsbane bullets have done a pretty convincing job of showing him hunters are dangerous.” 

Peter’s gaze narrowed as he looked down at Stiles, reaching down, he let his claws go out and tugged at the top of Stiles ear. Stiles stood up to avoid having his ear torn in two. When he was standing Peter brought his hand down to rest loosely on the back of Stiles’ neck and squeezed gently. Damnit again body, dangerous predator, stop liking the touching. 

“Take Scott home, I have some legal things to see too in the morning but you will hear from me soon. Did you back up Scott saying Derek was the one who killed the janitor?” 

“No...I told my dad I didn’t see who did it.” 

“Good, so it’s just Scott’s word against Derek.” 

Not knowing how to respond to that, Stiles reached down, pulling up Scott and staggering slightly under the weight. Derek snorted softly then grabbed Scott from him and started marching towards the jeep. Once they got Scott settled in the passenger seat Stiles headed out. As he pulled up to Scott’s house, the beta started to wake up. The two of them sat silent in the jeep for several long minutes. Stiles had no idea what to say. 

“I...saw the fire, and they were all burning. God, Stiles, it was horrible. I can’t imagine that kind of pain...I think he’s telling the truth. But I don’t know what to do with that? How is it still ok for him to kill people? Or anything. I don’t know what to do.” 

Trembling, Stiles reached over and grabbed Scott’s hand. “I don’t know either. I wish I did.” 

Only after he had bundled himself up in bed did he let all the events of the evening crash over him. Shaking silently with tears he curled up and just let out all the emotions of the day out. Finally his body wore itself out and he was able to drift into unconsciousness.


	2. I Meant to Tell You

Stiles was woken up at 5am when the neighbor’s car door slammed and then he was kept awake by the fact that his room smelled absolutely terrible. When he went into the bathroom he almost threw up at the smell. How the hell did Scott handle all this? Resignedly, he started a cleaning binge, by 9am he’d gotten through 3 loads of laundry, his bedroom, the two bathrooms were sparkling, the kitchen had been wiped down and he’d thrown out two garbage bags full of rotten food. He’d also gotten two batches of cookies baked and the smell of them was definitely helping to cover up the chemical cleaning scents. He’d already make several mental notes to find and buy more natural cleaners. 

He heard from Scott by the time he was finishing up, he said he’d be able to come over after lunch. Stiles sagged in relief upon receiving that text, he desperately needed his friend there for him. It was only the constant activity that was keeping down a panic attack. He sent off another text, asking if there was any way Scott could come sooner...he tried not to beg but was pretty sure he was not successful. When he began to hear his dad getting up, he mentally steeled himself for the inevitable shit show of a conversation that was about to happen. He frantically started a second pot of coffee (yes, he had drank an entire pot of coffee already, apparently the new body burned through caffeine quickly) and grabbed eggs and veggies from the fridge. 

“Hey dad, um, I made coffee, cookies are done but you can only have two. I can make eggs? You want eggs? And I have that turkey breakfast sausage you like that you can eat with the eggs..?” 

“Let’s start with coffee while I finish waking up.” 

“Sweet coffee it is, but I’m making you eggs too because just coffee on an empty stomach is like super bad for your digestion. I was reading an article this morning while I was waiting for the cookies on the effects of black coffee on your stomach and…” He trailed off as his dad walked over and rested a hand on his shoulder and then guided him over to the table to sit down. 

“I’m sorry for last night. I was worried and I let that become anger. But, I also know you, I know you were lying last night.” 

Stiles felt his mouth go dry. He hadn’t prepared for this. He had assumed his dad would be upset and he’d either be grounded or have to go the weekend without the jeep or something but now, shit, he really didn’t know what to say. He was terrified to try and tell his dad about werewolves and that he was one. He didn’t know if he could take it if his dad looked at him like he was a monster. He hated lying though, he really did. Not about little things here and there but something this big? Yeah, he hated it. Fuck, he needed to tell him everything and hope he understood.

“Yeah, I was...I’m so sorry, Dad. Sh-I mean, I’ve really messed up. I’m going to need you to just listen to me please? Please don’t get mad until I’ve gotten it all out, ok?” 

Eyebrows shooting up his dad rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Ah, hell, kid..yes, I promise.” 

“Ok, so, remember when I said I hadn’t actually seen who was attacking us at the school? It was true, really, but uh, when Scott said it was Derek, that part was not so much true…I didn’t contradict him because I didn’t want him to be mad at me and at the time we thought Derek was dead too. But um, yeah…” 

“The hell Stiles. You realize that if you are telling the truth then we’ve been distracted by chasing an innocent man for the last week while the real murderer is still out there?” 

“I know, I’m so--” 

He was interrupted by his dad surging to his feet and pacing the kitchen angrily. “I’m going out. You are to stay here for the day understood? You’re grounded.” 

“Dad, wait. Where are you going? You promised you would listen, remember? I have more to say. Please.” 

“I have to go talk to Scott. We will talk more later but I’m too upset with you right now.” With that the sheriff left the house leaving Stiles feeling like someone had doused him in cold water. 

“Shit.” He grabbed his phone and frantically dialed Scott. “Scott, I’m so sorry but my dad confronted me about last night and I was going to try and explain everything about the werewolves and Peter and Derek to get his advice but I barely got started and he got mad and left. I didn’t do it well. I...I told him it wasn’t Derek at the school, I’m sorry, but he’s on his way to talk to you.” 

“What? Stiles, no! I’m going to be in so much trouble. Why would you start there? I can’t believe you’d do that to me.” 

“I just couldn’t lie anymore and Derek doesn’t deserve it, he didn’t do it and--” 

“But Peter did! Derek’s with Peter now! I thought we were in this together, us against them, right?” 

“Scott...look, I’m just trying to wrap my head around all this, ok? It’s not so simple. Look, just tell my dad you were freaked out and because Derek was there earlier you just said his name and then panicked and didn’t know what to do. It’ll be ok, just please, I tried to tell him about the rest but--” 

“But what? Why would you even tell him that stuff without asking me? God, Stiles, I thought you were on my side with this. No, don’t keep talking. I’m so mad right now. Shit, he just pulled up, I have to go.” 

Feeling completely drained Stiles pulled himself up and mechanically went through breakfast clean up. He shot Derek a text letting him know what he had told his dad but that the reaction had not been promising. After about an hour and he hadn’t heard from Scott he tried calling again but no answer. 

The rest of the day seemed to go on forever. Derek still wasn’t responding to text messages and neither would Scott. His dad texted at 4pm saying he was going into the station and would likely be there all night. Trying to distract himself with video games only worked so well. Every nerve ending in Stiles’ body felt like it was standing on end and he kept flinching at all the noises from outside. He was twitching at every noise he heard and constantly on edge. After it was dark out he holed himself up in his room with his computer. He pulled open all his files and notes he’d been keeping on the Hale fire and werewolves and obsessively poured over them. He started a new file and worked on documenting all the changes and things he had noticed about his own change so far. 

At some point a noise downstairs startled him out of the reserach. He paused, listening intently. Not hearing anything else but feeling paranoid he got up and went over to his door. When he pulled it open, it was only the hand on his mouth that prevented him from screeching. Glaring around the hand at the amused eyes of Peter Hale he jerked backwards. 

“Oh my god, seriously, you just took ten years off my life...oh my god.” 

“Don’t be so dramatic. I’m impressed you heard as you did, I was taking care to hide myself from you.” 

“Is that why Scott couldn’t figure out where you were in the school or how Derek didn’t know you were coming?” 

Peter was moving fluidly around his room now lightly running his fingers over the posters and edges of his dresser and desk. He ignored the question to settle himself on Stiles’ bed, back against the headboard and hands folded on his stomach. He looked good, he had gotten a haircut and was wearing jeans and a dark grey henley. Stiles twitched sideways trying to decide the best course of action, other than to launch back into his million and one questions. Peter rolled his eyes and patted the bed next to him. 

“Come. Sit. We have a lot to discuss but what’s more important is we have some things to work on with your control.” 

“Ok, fine. Did Derek tell you what I texted him?” 

“Yes, that made some things a lot easier. Tomorrow I’m sending him into the station with a lawyer I know, which should finish up that unfortunate business all together. Are you just going to balance there on the edge of the bed or are you going to actually listen to your instincts here?” 

Stiles grumbled under his breath but did give in to Peter’s manhandling and let himself relax curled up into his alpha. “Creeperwolf.” 

“Whatever helps you justify how much you like this.” 

“Ugg. So what does the hospital think?” 

“Right now, I’ve just disappeared. I’m working on some things on that end but after we are finished with the Argents I should be able to reappear with some excellently applied prosthetics. Then my lawyer and Derek to explain how I woke up and was just so confused, but was found by Derek, who because of his situation kept me hidden. I’ll be the nine days wonder I’m sure, but soon it’ll all fade.” 

Stiles let that process while his body was feeling finally realxed for the first time since he’d woken up this morning. It was as if all the frantic nerves were given permission by Peter’s mere presence to calm down. He felt like he should want to fight this, to push back and try to get Peter to leave. He knew he needed a pack though, Scott’s rejection and refusal to come when he was needed had hurt deeply. If he couldn’t count on Scott to help, who else did he have? His dad and Scott were the only people he had and both of them had outright rejected him earlier that day. Peter was real and solid and had come because he’d known Stiles would need him. More than that, Peter was answering his questions and helping him. He swallowed heavily, yeah, he had already decided, hadn’t he. Pulling his mind back to other concerns he thought of another question. 

“What are you going to do? With the argents?” 

“I should have thought that would be obvious. Come now, I know you are smarter than this.” 

A cold feeling settled over Stiles as he remembered how dangerous and real this all was. Scott’s words from the night before about the fire came back to him. People had died, people that would get no justice because Stiles knew there wasn’t really any proof that the Argents were responsible. His dad might find some but it was unlikely. 

“I don’t know if I can help you kill people.” The admission slipped out and he winced at how small his voice sounded. Peter simply hummed and pulled him tighter. He didn’t know how he felt about this, all of this. Part of him was hating how much he was craving this touch and comfort. There was a part of him that loved this, loved feeling like he was a part of something, that he was important to someone. That was the part of him that understood too. That understood why Peter was doing this and even approved. That part scared him. 

The alpha sighed and pushed Stiles up until he was sitting and facing Peter who had sat up as well. Peter reached out a hand and ran it down Stiles’ face, he had to repress a shiver and flinch as memories of the fear from the night before came flashing back. 

“Some of the people in my family were human. One was only 4 years old.” He paused, Stiles had to take a shaky breath. It was like he could taste the pain and sadness coming off the man. “I understand this is difficult for you and if there was another option I would take it. I regret this has been the path I have been forced on, but you need to understand, this is necessary, not just as revenge but for the future. If I am going to rebuild a pack here, reclaim my family’s land, I cannot be just waiting for the hunters to do the same thing again.” 

Peter was staring off at the far wall, gaze distant though Stiles could see the fire in his eyes. He seemed better though, more contained than even from the night before. His scent was more defined as well without the hospital smells confusing it. Stiles just didn’t know what to do, he wasn’t sure he trusted these new instincts that were screaming at him to submit, follow, protect alpha. A question he’d been wrestling with all day though finally took precedence over figuring out his new instincts. 

“You, and Derek, keep talking about pack. I’m not sure either Scott or I really understand what that means to you...When Derek found Scott in the woods he told him they were brothers now. Is that what pack is? Family?” 

“Family is not a bad comparison...but pack is something more. You’ll begin to feel it soon if you don’t fight it like Scott has been. You’ll feel these bonds in you and when you reach for them you’ll be able to feel each one. It goes both ways as well, for a bitten wolf at first, their alpha can always find them but eventually if they fight the bond or refuse it will go dark on the alpha’s end as well. It’s all about acceptance. Pack is there for each other, always, they fight for each other, take care of each other. The bonds go deeper than family. The stronger the trust is between pack members and their alpha the stronger the wolves individually will be.” 

As Peter was talking Stiles felt something click within him. This was exactly what it should be like. This was how he had always thought of his people. Scott and his Dad, he would do absolutely anything to protect them. They were his, but some days he wasn’t sure he was theirs. Days like today actually, when his dad won’t listen, when Scott blames him for something he didn’t do.

“I’m in this now, have been since the moment you bit Scott. Can you promise though you’ll listen when I have ideas and not just go forward like a dictator? I’m really bad at keeping my mouth shut and doing what people tell me to do with no reasoning behind it. I can work on trusting you but you gotta give me reasons to.” 

With a low rumble the alpha reached back and pulled Stiles towards himself until Stiles had to duck his head to the side to avoid an extremely awkward moment with lips being way too close to one another. Peter gently ran his nose down Stiles face to his neck then carefully let his fangs prick his throat. Pulled back he gave the boy a satisfied smile. 

“Yes, I can promise that. I have every faith you’ll hold me to that promise.” 

The way Peter said it seemed to carry a lot more weight then Stiles was expecting it to. It’s almost like he can feel the emotion and intent Peter put behind the words and it leaves him a little breathless. Peter smirked at him then and the moment was over. He took a deep breath and tried to regain some sort of control of the situation. 

“Well that’s good. Super good. Um, so, like I didn’t sleep much last night and it’s getting kind of late so you know…” 

The alpha’s smirk simply grew, “Do I?” 

“Uh, you know, you should move now. Off my bed, where I sleep. Alone.”

“I find I am rather comfortable where I am, and your bed, while on the smaller side, can fit both of us quite well.” Then before he could even come up with a coherent response to that Peter was pulling him down and arranging the two of them in the bed with Stiles closest to the wall and Peter facing the door. Stiles let out some sort of garbled protest that was completely ignored. 

“I’m pretty sure this falls into the bad touch category...seriously, like what even is this.” 

Peter let out a soothing rumble from deep in his chest and Stiles could already feel himself relaxing into it. “This helps make our pack bond strong. I should also keep you from any stressed shifting overnight. Tomorrow morning we will work on control.” 

“Fine...just don’t let my dad see you.” 

The next morning Peter was already gone when Stiles woke up. He stretched and focused on listening then smiled when he heard his Dad’s steady breathing and heartbeat. Checking his phone next he saw he had a text from Derek with an address. Feeling both curious and wary he shot off a text to Scott asking if he could come with Stiles. He hadn’t gotten a response by the time he was dressed and had eaten a box and half of poptarts. After a probably not long enough mental debate he decided to go alone. The address was outside of town in the area where the rich and prosperous had settled with large homes on even larger plots of land. When he got to the start of the area he had to stop at a security station with an actual gate. Then the guard (wtf, an actual guard?) actually came out and over to the jeep. Feeling like an idiot who did not belong here, like at all, Stiles rolled down his window. 

“Name and who you are visiting?” 

“Uh Stiles and umm...Peter Hale?” This had better not be the first time sourwolf decided to have a sense of humor and was punking him. 

“One moment.” The guard went back into his guard shack and picked up a phone. Stiles sat there nervously twitching until the guard pulled something out of a drawer and came back over. 

“Here you go Mr. Stilinski, stick this to the top of your windshield and next time you can just go straight through.” He said, handing Stiles some sort of thick plastic card. 

“Thanks.” 

Feeling like everyone in this place was judging him super harshly for the jeep, he went through the now open gate and made his way through the winding road. He didn’t actually see any houses through the trees, just driveways. Some of them had their own gates and some didn’t. Peter’s address was at the very end of the road and there hadn’t been any more driveways for a bit when he came to another large gate with stone walls going off in either direction from it. The wall had to be at least 12 feet high with metal spikes close together on top of it. There was no security box Stiles could see at the gate but when he drove up it opened right away for him. 

The house when he got up to it was not mansion level but definitely over twice the size of casa de Stilinski. There was a good portion of space cleared around the house letting the sun come through and rest on the landscaped lawn. Still not sure he wasn’t being punked, he got out of the jeep and made his way up the steps of the wrap around porch to the front door. Before he could knock the door swung open to reveal Derek, who had his patented brooding face on. 

“What’s up grumpywolf? Dude, I was sure I was going to get stopped by someone who would refuse to let me go further because I’m too poor to even step foot in this area. Like wow, dude, your uncle is loaded.” 

Derek rolled his eyes (the Hale family really had eye rolling down to an art form). “Don’t call me dude. Peter’s out back.” 

“Thanks girlfriend.” Stiles said as he bolted away to escape the growling beta. Feeling pleased with himself, he made his way out back to a larger porch area that had a small table at which Peter was seated. Stiles had to stop and blink at the site of the alpha, barefoot and in sweatpants and a loose shirt casually sipping coffee. He wasn’t alone either as his Nurse, Jennifer, was there as well in jeans and a sweatshirt with her hair in a messy bun. Peter turned and gave Stiles an appraising look before nudging one of the empty chairs with his foot. Feeling nervous all of a sudden he sat down, trying to stop the inevitable babble for a bit longer. 

“Stiles, you remember Jennifer?” 

“Sure, uh, hi?” 

Jennifer raised her eyebrows, “It’s nice to meet you. I’ll leave you to it then. Peter, I’ll be in the study if you need anything.” 

“Thank you my dear.” 

“Is she a werewolf too?” He asked as soon as she was out of sight in the house. 

“Not at all, she’s a witch.” 

“Witches are real?! That’s so cool. What can she do? Can she turn people into frogs or is that just disney? Does she have a cat?” 

Peter cut off this flood of enthusiasm with a snort as he stood up, pulling Stiles with him. “You can ask her yourself, later, all I’ll say for the moment is that she has helped ward this place to keep out other supernaturals and hunters. She also helped me heal and eventually would have fully healed me if I had not gotten the boost of power from becoming an alpha. Now, we need to focus on you.” 

“Fine, fine. So you gonna teach me how to go all grrr and not grrr?” 

“Yes Stiles, I will teach you how to ‘grrr’ as you put it. But first, let’s focus on your concentration.” 

“Uh yeah, good luck with that. Pretty sure my adderall does nothing to me anymore which is going to make school hell by the way and I’m probably going to be put in detention with Harris until the end of the school year this next week so prepare yourself for that.” 

“We will see about that. Now, take off your shoes, we are going for a walk.” 

“But the ground is cold.” 

“Darling, you are a werewolf now, your feet will survive.” 

Grumbling he took off his shoes and padded after the alpha as they made their way into the forest. The training, which he had been expecting to involve a lot of claws and growling, went well. Peter was a patient teacher and he was right, this did help Stiles to concentrate. As they walked he kept asking questions, getting Stiles to describe to him in detail about each plant or tree they came across smelled. After doing this for a while he switched to hearing, having him focus on listening for a brook or a bird then telling the alpha what he heard and how far away he thought it was. Combined with this came a lot of answers to questions Stiles had about wolves and wolf packs and other supernatural beings. 

After a couple of hours of wandering Peter brought them back to the house and started teaching him various fighting and self defense techniques. This was both exhilarating and slightly tortuous. Peter was patient with him but also very firm and pushed him hard. Harder than Stiles was pretty sure he’d ever been pushed by any of the sports he had been in. 

“Being a werewolf doesn’t automatically give you muscles or make you know how to defend yourself.” 

“But do I need to learn everything today?” 

“Oh Stiles, we have barely gotten started.” 

“Oh my god.” 

They stopped just before noon and Stiles was an exhausted, sweaty mess. Peter sent him to take a shower in what must be one of the numerous bathrooms in the place. While he was showering his sweaty clothes were replaced with new ones that somehow were his exact size. Staring at them blankly he picked up the shirt and noticed that it smelled like Peter. Rolling his eyes and muttering about creepy werewolves he put the clothes on and went back to the kitchen, where delicious smells were coming out of, to see Peter pulling meat out of the oven. Derek appeared behind him at that point, walking by him, the beta gave him a not so gentle cuff on the back of his head. 

Jennifer came out as well and the four of them fell into a somewhat awkward silence as Peter prodded them all out of doors to eat lunch. After about five minutes of this Stiles couldn’t stand it anymore so against his better judgement he turned to Jennifer and blurted out. “Can you turn people into frogs?” She startled slightly, laughed, then turned to Derek and pulled $10 out and handed it to the smug looking werewolf. Stiles stared at them both, mouth hanging open. 

“Derek bet me that’d be the first thing you said to me, I didn’t believe anyone would ask someone they knew was an actual witch that.” She shook her head, “No, I can’t turn people into frogs, I can see by your face you have about a thousand other questions so I’ll save you the breath and say that you are just going to have to learn what I can or cannot do as you see me do it. If something is relevant I will share, otherwise I have no desire to play twenty questions with a teenager. Understood?” 

His face now bright red Stiles nodding before turning his attention back to his food. Inwardly though he was already plotting out his next researching binge. First up on that list was to get access to the study mentioned which would hopefully point him in the right internet rabbit hole to go down. He was broken out of these musings when his phone went off. He quickly picked it up when he saw who it was. 

“Hey, Scotty, so glad you called, so I hav --” 

“Stiles! You have to come pick me up, right now.” 

“What’s wrong? What happened? Are you ok?” 

“I’m fine but Argent’s going after Jackson and I need to stop it.” 

“Why…?” 

“Just come get me!” 

“No, Scott, why do we care? Jackson’s not a wolf.” 

“Argent thinks he is. Just come please? I’m a couple blocks away from Jackson’s house. He just left then Argent followed.” Then the line went dead. Stiles glared at his phone before looking up, Derek was rolling his eyes again while Peter looked contemplative. 

“Interesting. You should go, find out what this Jackson knows and if you can, why Christopher thinks he is the beta they are chasing.” 

“Ugg, never thought I’d see the day when I had to save Jackson fucking Whitmoore’s rich ass.” 

As he drove out of the entitled rich people’s commune he set his course towards the slightly less pretentious part of town where the Whitmoores lived. As he was getting close he called Scott who gave him an updated location and hung up. Sighing deeply he slowed down so Scott could easily hop in and then follow Scott’s hurried directions that led them to the abandoned lumber mill. 

“Why are you slowing down? We need to get in there now.” 

“Dude, no, we are going to pull up close enough to get our ears on to try and hear what’s going on before busting in there like outlaws to a wagon train and getting filled with bullets full of wolfsbane.” 

“He won’t shoot us, he thinks Jackson is the beta.” 

Stiles threw his hands in the air. “That means nothing, haven’t you been paying attention to anything? There were humans in the Hale house too, Scott. The Argents didn’t give a fuck about them then, they won’t give a fuck about that now.” 

“We don’t know they did that Stiles and besides they might not have known they were human.” 

“Scott.” He managed to get out through gritted teeth. “I cannot believe you just said that. You saw Peter’s memories of the fire, you should know that no one deserved that.” 

Scott flinched away from him, eyes wide. “You have to calm down. You’re growling and your eyes are yellow.” Gripping the steering wheel tight Stiles took a breath and started to go through the smells and sounds around him using them to ground himself. Soon he was breathing normally again. Scott was still staring at him. “How..? How did you calm down so fast?” 

“Peter taught me some things this morning.” 

Scott snarled, “You went to Peter?” 

“Yes! Yes, I went to Peter, because I don’t want to almost kill my best friend when the girl I like doesn’t notice me or the jerk lacrosse captain hits me too hard in practice. So, yes, I went to the one person we know right now that actually has experience teaching new werewolves.” 

“Derek couldn’t teach me anything.” 

“Dude, I am starting to think Derek really doesn’t know much about being a werewolf. He was like 15 when the fire happened and the Hale family were all born wolves, no surprise he doesn’t know how to teach a bitten wolf anything about control. Now, are we going to listen in on Jackson and Argent or what?” 

Glowering at the outside like it was personally responsible for all his current problems Scott gave a nod for Stiles to keep moving. Slowing down right before they got to what used to be the main lot for the trucks to come in and out both boys rolled down their windows and tried to see if they could hear Jackson. Soon, they heard the roar of the Porsche, it sounded like Jackson was joyriding through the parking lot. As badly as Stiles wanted to judge his self proclaimed arch nemesis, he had to admit to himself if he had a Porsche he’d probably be doing the same thing. 

It wasn’t long before they heard the engine die and Jackson cursing as he opened up the hood. Tensing up, Stiles put his hand to the ignition but then paused as they heard another car drive up and Chris Argent offering to take a look. 

“Why aren’t you starting the car? We need to get in there?” 

“I want to wait and hear if he gives anything away.” 

“We already know what he thinks because I heard him talking to Kate on Saturday night at the game.” 

“Well thanks for sharing with the class Scotty, if you’ll remember, I wasn’t at the game because I was busy not getting eaten by a homicidal alpha werewolf.” He turned on the jeep and quickly drove up to where Jackson and Argent were parked. 

“Need a lift?” Scott said, while giving Chris Argent a pathetic attempt at a hard look. Go eager puppy, go. Stiles thought feeling more than a little irritated at his supposed best friend at the moment. Jackson, however, hesitated and Argent tried to convince him that he’d be better off letting the hunter help him and then it was super obvious Scott was not going to be any use. Stiles rolled his eyes and jumped in. 

“Ah, come on Jackson, you are much too pretty to be out here all alone.” Stiles jumped in when it looked like Scott was about to start growling. And thank freaking wolf gods, Jackson finally started moving towards their car. Of course that was when Argent magically got the car working. Stiles just focused on keeping his face on ‘open sarcastic mode’. He was pretty sure that Scott was not doing a good job at this, like at all, based on the suspicious look Argent was giving both of them. Argent finally left, which, thank you to the wolf gods again (he made a mental note to look up and see if any of the wolf gods had names so he could more properly express his gratitude). But then Scott was hurtling out of the jeep, snarling at Jackson and slamming the jeep door with way too much strength. 

“Dude, my jeep.” And ignored…now Scott hit his jeep. “Seriously, my jeep!” Ignored again, ugg this rage thing of Scott’s was getting old. 

“Just trust me, all it does is makes things worse.” Scott was talking, which, oh yeah, he should probably pay attention to what they were saying. 

“Really? You can hear anything you want and run faster than humanly possible. Sounds like a real hardship, McCall.” Jackson was doing a decent impression of a wolf already with this posturing and snarling. Wolf gods, if both of these idiots were werewolves, they were all doomed.

“Yeah, I can run really fast now - Except half the time, I'm running away from people trying to kill me! And I can hear things like - like my girlfriend telling people that she doesn't trust me anymore right before breaking up with me. I'm not lying to you! It - ruins your life.” Stiles would give Scott one thing, he was really good at the impassioned speeches, a bit melodramatic, but B+ for effort.

Jackson sneered before answering, “It ruined your life. You had all the power in the world, and you didn't know what to do with it. You know what it's actually like? It's like you turned 16 and someone bought you a Porsche when they should have started you out with a nice little Honda. Me? I drive a Porsche.”

Ok, enough was enough, Stiles decided it was time for some logic and reason in this conversation. “Seriously? Like, dude, I mean you have a point but yeah no, this is not anything like having a powerful car, think more like every single emotion you have ever had is intensified times 100, and your self control is shot unless you work really hard to anchor yourself. Also, Scott, be real here a minute, without this you never would have made first line, would have sucked at bowling and Lydia never would have let Allison within ten feet of you.” 

Now both of them were glaring at him, great, see this is what happens when you go to save freaking Jackson’s life. Scott, ignoring him, started talking about how he couldn’t save everyone, which Jackson ignored and made more threats, if Scott couldn’t get him the bite then he’d tell the Argents. Seeing that Scott was about three seconds from wolfing out and attacking Jackson Stiles decided that he had enough. Pulling out his phone he dialed Derek, who (for once) picked up on the second ring. 

“What.” Only Derek could say that without it being an actual question. 

“Hey, so uh, I have a thing to ask the alpha.” Scott and Jackson had stopped arguing at this point. Scott was giving him a betrayed and horrified look while Jackson was staring at him like he had never seen him before (which, to be fair was kind of true, Jackson had not taken the time to notice Stiles since second grade). 

“Yes Stiles?” 

“Jackson is saying that unless Scott can arrange for him to become a werewolf he is going to tell the Argent’s all about Scott and everything else he thinks he knows.” Peter made a contemplative noise but nothing else. “Well…?” 

“Bring him here. Scott can come too, if he’s not too frightened to do so.” 

Shoving the phone back into his pocket and ignoring the now growling Scott he turned to Jackson. “Do you want to leave your car here or should I follow you home and then we’ll go?” 

“What?” 

Stiles rolled his eyes, “To go see the alpha dumbass. If you want to go then we are taking my jeep.” 

“NO!” Scott grabbed him and slammed him against the jeep. Ok, enough was enough. Channeling everything Peter had taught him that morning Stiles grabbed Scott’s arm with a clawed hand digging into the flesh there at the same time throwing his knee into Scott’s balls. As Scott doubled over Stiles surged forward and threw him down. 

“Enough Scott. I’ve had enough. Look, I of all people know how much of a nightmare this past month has been. You’ve almost killed me multiple times, I’ve had to lie to my dad, to your mom and taken the fall for you when you’ve skipped out on school. And I have been by your side the whole time. I was there for your plan in the school, I was there on the night of the full moon, I spent hours trying to help you control this.” Stiles realized he was trembling now and there was unexpected wetness on his face. “And when I needed you on Friday and yesterday, when I was panicked because hey, I thought I was going to die, then the werewolf who’s been hunting us decides I’m his new favorite thing, instead of being there for me you decide to blame me. I just...I need you on my side.” 

Scott slowly pulled himself to his feet, rubbing the blood on his arm. “Then come with me, don’t go to him, don’t bring Jackson there. Let’s go, we will figure this out together, we can stop him together. You don’t need him, we don’t need him.” 

“Yeah, yeah we do. We can’t face this alone, hell, look at this, I have more control after just one morning with him then you do after a month on your own.” 

“I will not ever get help from him. He did this to me. I can’t believe you would betray me like this.” With that Scott turned and left, leaving Stiles feeling like he’d been punched in the chest. Watching his best friend walk away from him like this felt like a whole other kind of agony. 

“My house.” 

“What?” 

“Follow me to my house, I don’t want to leave my car here.” 

Stiles shook his head trying to clear out the haze that was trying to settle in. “Yeah, ok.” Yes, this is good, focus on Jackson and his insanity rather than the insanity that he could still see walking away from him. With one last look at the retreating figure of Scott, he got in the car and drove away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you in part from Jennifer, Peter's nurse, who came to me and demanded that she actually make sense in the plot (and that she was worth more than a dead body in a trunk).


	3. I need to know what this means

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild warning that near the end of this chapter Stiles has the beginnings of a panic attack, triggered by Scott saying some very nasty things to him. Lydia also does not look good here, I am usually a Lydia fan but for this story I needed her to play more of the beginning of season 1 persona, of the typical high school queen who manipulates all the people around her. If I get to the sequel I have semi planned, I'm going to have her redeem herself.

Jackson remained silent for the drive back to Peter’s, which Stiles appreciated, because for once in his life he had no idea what to say. He felt like he was teetering on the edge of either a panic attack or a full emotional meltdown and he couldn’t do either of those things until he wasn’t needing to keep it together and deal with the supernatural insanity that had become his life. Thankfully the distraction of Jackson’s expression when he realized where they were going was enough to get his thoughts pulled out of the dark hole he was falling into. 

He was also amused to note that the closer that they got to Peter’s the more nervous Jackson was getting. All the bravado and ego he had shown earlier was being chipped away at. When Stiles finally stopped the car at the house Jackson was rallying himself but there was still a good amount of fear that Stiles could smell. Sighing, he finally broke the silence. 

“It’ll be better to be honest.” 

“What?” 

“To be honest, about why you want this and how you feel. He’ll be able to tell anyways.” 

“Tell what?” 

“Oh my god, when did you get so dense. Tell if you are lying, you idiot. He can hear your heartbeat and smell your emotions. Also, I know Scott doesn’t like this for a lot of reasons and he isn’t being very rational right now but he wasn’t completely wrong. This stuff can ruin your life, it can get you killed. It got most of the Hales killed, by the Argent’s by the way, so you won’t be able to do this alone. If you choose this it means you have to choose to do it with pack. There won’t be a oh hey, I’m a werewolf now, I’m going to wander off and do my own thing. Look how well that’s working out for Scott.” 

“Like I’d ever want to be ‘pack’ with you, Stilinski. Clearly this alpha has been scraping the bottom of the barrel, well, now he has me so prepare yourself to get benched again.” 

The car door slammed shut as Jackson jumped out, squared his shoulders and started strolling up to the front door. Stiles wished he could say those words didn’t dig in as deep as they did. But didn’t that describe his whole life though? Always the convenient one but never the one who was wanted for himself. No one wanted him, just what he did for them. Taking a shaky breath and trying to pull himself together he wiped his face vigorously and climbed out of the jeep. 

Looking up he saw that Derek had opened the door and was giving Jackson his very best unimpressed look. It made him feel slightly better that at least Derek wasn’t going to fall all over Jackson. Jogging up the steps he gave Derek a blinding grin. 

“How’s it hanging girlfriend?” 

“Call me that again and I will bite your nose off.” 

“Aww, I always knew you cared about me.” 

“Gross, Stilinski, no wonder you’ve never gotten laid. Now, where is this mighty alpha, I know it’s not you, Hale.” 

Derek turned back to the jock raising his eyebrows. “Apparently you missed the pack part of Stiles’ explanation. It’s not just the alpha that’s important here, if you want this then you are joining all of us.” 

“Fine. Whatever, I get it, pack is important.” 

Looking thoroughly unimpressed Derek moved to the side and gestured Jackson into the house. As Stiles moved to follow Derek snaked out an arm and wrapped around his shoulders shoving his face into his neck. He froze as Derek ran his nose along Stiles’s neck up to rub their cheeks together. Scenting, his brain realized with a jolt, this was scenting, this was Derek accepting him as pack. A warm feeling ran through him and he felt himself relax against the other beta and eagerly moved his head to run his own nose across Derek’s cheek and neck. Something seemed to click in place then, like an important puzzle piece had found its spot. 

Feeling slightly shaky, he pulled back, hoping that all this raw emotion he was feeling wasn’t leaking all over the place. Derek had a softer expression on his face than Stiles had ever seen before, so yeah, he was probably pretty leaky at the moment. Derek tightened his grip on Stiles’ shoulder before letting go and stalking after Jackson, leaving Stiles to scramble afer both of them. He really needed a break from all this emotional content, he needed to sit down and work through it and hope in the end it somehow all made sense. 

Jackson had stopped when he reached the kitchen, eyes flicking with uncertainty again as he tried to look casual. Derek marched over and grabbed his arm and began to pull him down the hall. Stiles trailed behind them, feeling a bit like a lost puppy, but also wildly curious how this would go. Derek directed them through a door and this definitely had to be the study. Yes! Now distracted, Stiles spun around to take in the room and wondered if he would be able to snoop for magic books while they were busy with Jackson. 

“Stiles.” Peter’s voice was laced with amusement. Stiles stopped his spin to land his gaze upon the alpha. Peter was leaning back casually against a large desk, completely ignoring Jackson who was now frowning slightly as he shifted his gaze from Peter to Stiles and back again. 

“Yes…?” 

Peter rolled his eyes and held out a hand in Stiles direction. That warm feeling in Stiles’ grew again as he moved over into Peter’s space and let the wolf pull him in and repeat the scenting Derek had done just moments before but instead of letting go Peter kept him there with an arm wrapped around his waist. Only then, did he turn a cool gaze to Jackson. 

“Tell me why you want to be a wolf.” 

“I would make an excellent wolf and would be an asset to you.” 

“That’s not what I asked.” Peter’s cold tone was making Jackson sweat and he was starting to fidget under the alpha’s gaze. 

“I...want to be better, faster, stronger, the best.” 

“Hmmm, and why do you think Stiles would be less of a pack member then you would be?” 

“Well, for one,” With this question Jackson seemed to regain some of his earlier bravado, the jock smirked, as he pointedly looked at Peter’s arm around Stiles, “I wouldn’t have to spread my legs to be of use to you.” 

Stiles felt his face grow hot, he was about to bite out a retort but the quick squeeze Peter gave him made him pause. The alpha cocked his head, assessing, turning away from Jackson he brushed his mouth against Stiles’ temple before letting go and moving towards Jackson. 

“Interesting.” Peter said, practically purring. Jackson stumbled back a step, everything about Peter screamed predator right now, you didn’t need to be a wolf to feel the danger rolling off the alpha wolf. Stiles flashed briefly back to Friday night, except, there was a difference now, Peter’s gaze was clearer, there was no wildness or desperation in him now, just dangerous intent. 

“You, have no idea what pack means. You rely on your looks and strength to gain power and control in your life. Holding that power over those around you to make yourself feel just a little less like you mean nothing. That’s the truth, isn’t it? Deep down you just want to be worth something, to be powerful equals to be wanted for you. Not here, not with this pack. Stiles gave a very good explanation as you arrived but in your arrogance, you ignored him. Even now, when he is clearly in a position of power over you, you disdain him.” 

As he was speaking Peter had begun a slow circle around the now trembling boy. “Oh yes, Scott and Stiles, beneath you in wealth, advantages, power, friends, girlfriend...but then something changed, you felt that power slipping out of your grasp, and realized without it you had nothing. So, you come crawling to me, thinking I would be grateful to have you? Oh, child, what arrogance to bring in front of a werewolf. I have had this power my entire life, as has my nephew. Stiles has proved himself as a valued pack member from the moment Scott was bitten.” Peter ended his slow circuit and now stood directly in front of Jackson, his eyes were still bright red. 

Jackson tried to back up again but fast as a cobra Peter’s hand snapped out and gripped the back of Jackson’s head letting his claws out to prick the tender skin. Jackson was full out shaking now, eyes wide and terrified. It brought back a memory for Stiles, one from long ago, when Jackson had been a constant presence in his life. 

“Peter…” The alpha didn’t move but Stiles could feel his attention shift over. “He...make him prove it.” 

Peter hummed. “Why?” He said, almost idly. 

“Because he does want a pack, he just doesn’t realize it. He’s been looking for it, in all the wrong places, but he’s been looking. Maybe he can finally let himself find it.” 

The alpha let go and stepped back until his shoulder came up against Stiles’. Turning slightly his now blue eyes gazed at Stiles, considering. “All right then. Jackson, you can have a chance to prove yourself. But...you must prove yourself to Stiles. If Stiles tells me that you are ready, then and only then, will I turn you.” Turning back to Jackson he slowly let claws grow on one hand and his gaze turned red again. “But, if you breath so much as one word of any of this to the anyone, I will hunt you down and tear you into pieces. Understood?” 

Jackson nodded frantically. “I…I understand.” 

“Good. Now, Derek will see you out. You can wait in the jeep, I need a few minutes with Stiles.” 

As soon as the door shut Stiles blurted out, “I’m sorry.” 

Peter frowned at him, “For what?” 

“For everything, springing him on you, interrupting you, I...I don’t want to be a burden.” 

“Stiles.” Peter brought up a hand to rub at Stiles’ cheek, warmth blossomed from where he was touching. “You are not a burden. You are part of my pack, sweetheart, and I am your alpha. You did absolutely the right thing contacting me about Jackson, the boy was a threat to us. As for speaking up, you did right then too. It showed him how important you are to me, to this pack. He needed to see that.” 

Stiles took a shuddering breath and turned away from Peter’s intense gaze. He didn’t know what to feel anymore. The warmth was back but also confusion, he didn’t know what any of this meant anymore. Then Peter was pulling him in for a hug and Stiles just let go and clung to Peter letting himself sob into the man’s arms. Making soothing noises, Peter pulled him over to a chair and then down into his lap sideways, tucking Stiles up in his arms and held on tight. 

“This is pack, sweetheart.” Peter murmured against his ear, making a low rumbling noise deep in his chest. Stiles just let it all out until he just lay trembling against his alpha. Somehow through this, the haze that had sunk over his mind that afternoon began to lift and he could feel the warmth in his chest that felt uniquely Peter. Prodding at it inside himself he noticed he could feel another bond that when he tugged at it he realized belonged to Derek. Peter made a pleased noise. “Those are the pack bonds. Most bitten wolves take longer to be able to feel them like that.” 

Sitting up and pulling a little ways away from Peter he took some deep breaths and bit back the urge to apologize again. He felt the bond hum with approval. “Can you like, read my mind now, or something?” 

Peter laughed, “Or something, no, don’t look at me like that, I am just very good at reading chemo signals combining with the bond means I get a very good read on your emotions which helps me guess what you are thinking. Also, your face is fairly expressive.” 

“Great, so basically I’ll never be able to hide anything from you again.” 

“The bond works both ways, though once you get more used to it you’ll be able to block everything from going through. Don’t worry, it would get exhausting to know all the emotions of the whole pack at once. We will work on that for you, though I must admit I will take particular delight knowing Derek will be forced to acknowledge and accept the emotions of you for the time being.” 

“Oh god.” 

Peter laughed again, leaning forward to press his face into Stiles’ neck which sent shivers down Stiles’ whole body. Practically purring Peter pressed a gentle kiss onto Stiles’ throat that seemed to jolt through him like an electric shock. Making a strangled noise he flailed out of Peter’s lap, face burning. He landed on the floor in a heap, feeling incredibly flustered and confused, glaring up at a smirking and unrepentant Peter. Pulling himself to his feet he realized he felt a lot better and his emotions were stabilized again. Ignoring Peter’s knowing look, he sighed when he realized he needed to get home soon. 

“Well, I guess I need to go bring Jackson back. Then head home to face my dad.” 

“You will always be welcome here, anytime you need it.” 

“Thank you, that means a lot, it really does. And thank you for, you know, pack and...turning me. It’s not something I thought I wanted, but now that I have it. Just, thank you.” 

“You are very welcome for that sweetheart, I owe much to you as well. Without you I don’t think I ever would have been able to get Derek to be so accepting and open towards me.” 

Stiles nodded to that unsure how else to respond and turned to go back but then thought of something else. “Hey, so have you figured out how to get Derek not wanted by the police anymore?” 

“Well, since the accuser officially withdrew the accusation combined with the excellent lawyer I hired, Derek is free and clear.” 

Stiles breathed a sigh of relief and then moved out of the room. Peter followed him down the hall and back out the front door. He paused on the steps, a large part of him didn’t want to leave. Just wanted to stay here, where he felt safe with Peter and Derek. But he knew he had to go face reality and his dad. After a quick scenting from his packmates he got back into the jeep and started driving away. 

Jackson didn’t speak to him for almost the entire drive back. The other boy just stared blankly out of the window, refusing to acknowledge Stiles. As they got to his neighborhood he finally broke the silence. 

“Why? Why would you say those things?” 

“Well, they are true, aren’t they?” 

Jackson bristled at that. “Don’t know why the fuck you think you know me so well.” 

“Ok, look, I’m too tired for this bullshit right now. I know that underneath all this muscle flexing and jock stupidity you are just the same kid you were when we were eight and you found out you were adopted. No, don’t you dare freak out. I have kept that a secret for 9 years. I have held that back even when you said every nasty thing in the world to me when my mom died.” He took a deep breath feeling furious he had to go through another emotional rollercoaster all for the jackass that was Jackson. 

“So yes. I do know you. I know you have always just wanted to feel like you were wanted. That you were worth something. Well, guess what, that’s all I have ever wanted too. And I’m getting that here, with Peter and Derek. You could too if you pulled your head out of your ass and learned to care about someone else.” 

During this rant Stiles had pulled up to the Whittemore’s house, ending just as he got into the driveway. Jackson had been getting steadily more tense as Stiles had been talking, when the jeep rolled to a stop, the jock gave a furious glare before heaving himself out of the jeep and saying, “Fuck you Stilinski.” Stiles winced as the jeep door slammed, again, this jeep abuse really needed to stop. Poor Roscoe couldn’t take much more. 

Giving into the urge, he thumped his head against the steering wheel (but gently!) a few times before heading home. His dad’s cruiser was already in the driveway as a sign of the impending doom he was about to experience. Feeling exhausted, he put his head back down on the steering wheel in an attempt to mentally fortify himself. He had a brief moment of debate on whether or not he should just give it up as a lost cause and go back to Peter but common sense jumped in and reminded him that putting this off would only cause more problems in the future. Groaning, he finally slunk out of the jeep and heading inside. 

There was a light coming from the dining room, he had another internal freak out and almost just ran upstairs but then his dad’s voice made his decision for him. “Stiles? That you? I’m in the dining room.” 

“Yup, yup it’s me. Stiles. Your son...Stiles…”

The silence following this babble did not inspire confidence, but it was go time regardless of his confidence levels. Trying to muster up some of the courage he’d had earlier when he’d been with Peter, he forced himself to walk into the kitchen into the dining room. His dad was sitting at the table with an exhausted look on his face. Taking a quick look at the table he noticed his dad had laid out all the case files of the murders and the Hale fire. Woah, he really should have seen that coming. His dad was a damn good detective. 

“Sit please, son.” Stiles sat, nervously fidgeting and trying desperately to keep himself from starting to look through the files in front of him. His dad got a small, sad smile on his face as he continued to look at him. Finally, just as Stiles was pretty sure he was about to implode from the silence his dad spoke again. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Uh, what? I mean, ok, dad, I accept. I love you.” Shit, his emotions must still be more on edge than he realized to let out the love word. He ducked his head and ran his hand through his buzzcut staring resolutely at the table in front of him. 

“Ah hell, kid. I love you too.” A firm hand reached out and gripped his shoulder. “You were right, I did promise to listen and I didn’t. You were trying to do the right thing and I should never have gotten angry at you for that. I of all people should know the lengths that you go to when you are backing up one of your chosen ones.” 

Feeling his eyes burning again Stiles risked a look up at his dad who was staring at him with a slightly broken look on his face. “Ah, no, dad, it’s ok. I messed up, I really did and I’m really sorry. I hope you didn’t get in trouble because of me.” 

“No, no trouble. Whittemore says I got lucky that Hale apparently has decided not to sue the department, he also acknowledges that I had to go off of the evidence presented to me, and partially because it was Scott giving the testimony, not you, I didn’t get any shade placed on me.”

Stiles almost went boneless with relief. “That’s good, that’s real good. So why’d you bring all this home then?” 

His dad smiled at him again, “I didn’t want to miss you coming home.” The tight feeling in his chest was back along with a small tendril of warmth that seemed to reach out from him to twine around his dad. Giving into the urge he reached over and grabbed his dad in a tight hug breathing in the Sheriff’s scent. He had to force himself to pull away so as to not make it weird or too out of character. Starting to sift through the case files was the perfect distraction and put him and his dad back in familiar territory. He mostly wanted to get his hands on the Hale fire files. He’d already managed to snoop his way through all the files on the murders but hadn’t gotten to the actual Hale file yet. 

“Hey, no snooping. Stiles, I’m serious, I can’t share this with you, it's an ongoing investigation.” The Sheriff reached over and started shuffling papers away from him while he gave his best wide eyed innocent look. “Yeah, I stopped falling for that look when you were two.” 

“Ah come on dad, just a peak please? I promise I won’t tell anyone.” 

“I know from long experience that your definition of anyone is changeable depending on the person. So. No. Especially because I know you have full plans to track down Derek Hale.” 

“Woah. Dad, no, what would, why would...you think that?” 

“Your response right there is why I would think that.” 

Stiles slumped in his seat, he was so not on top of his game tonight. At all. Stupid new werewolf powers must be messing with his ability to deflect. Or it was also possible his dad was paying closer attention than normal because of the day before. 

“Would you be mad if I did?” He hated how small his voice came out. 

“Shit, Stiles, no. No, I wouldn’t be mad. Just...don’t expect miracles ok? Derek has been through hell in the last six years and this murder accusation on top of everything else....But you’re a good kid, son, and I know you want to make it right. This might be one of those times you have to accept that you can’t fix it, ok?” 

Stiles nodded, not trusting his voice in that moment. Thankfully the Sheriff changed topics. “Now, I don’t know about you but I’m starving. Let’s go get some food.” 

“Yes, food, food is good and necessary for survival, but a chicken sandwich for you if we go to Mama’s and no curly fries.” 

“Son, I have had a hell of a weekend, I am eating a real burger.” Stiles gave a squawk in outrage while his dad got up and started moving towards the door. The familiar bickering over food smoothed over the rest of his anxiety as they made their way to the eatery that was a Beacon Hills staple. 

The next morning Stiles made himself get up early so he could practice the exercises Peter had given him for helping to calm himself down and improve his general awareness. He knew today was going to be rough and he just had to hope he was controlled enough to make it through. Especially since he wasn’t sure if Scott was going to help him or not. He quickly shoved awy that thought as it left him feeling adrift and sad. As an extra precaution, he grabbed some of the clear ear plugs he’d appropriated from the Sheriff’s station during the first week of Scott’s transition, when he and Scott had been trying to figure out the advanced hearing part of being a werewolf. 

As he was pulling into the school parking lot, his phone buzzed. Checking it after he parked, he saw it was from an unknown number, when he opened up the message his confusion went away and he grinned. _Just keep focusing on one thing at a time and you’ll do great today. Call me if you need anything._ Shoot back a quick reply of _thanks alpha_ , he did one last run through of his senses before heading into the school. 

Saving the new number under the contact as Bossman he couldn’t help but send out one more text to the newly changed contact labeled as GF in his phone. 

To GF: _Morning Sunshine! Whatcha gonna do on your first day as an unwanted man?_

Skidding into English class a few minutes before the first bell, the response buzzed through. 

From GF: _you know the great thing about being a werewolf? It means when I throw you into a wall I can do it harder because you heal._  
To GF: _love you too cupcake._

Chortling to himself, he pulled out what he needed for class, which was when he noticed that Allison was already at her desk and was staring intensely at a book in front of her. In a split second decision he took advantage of the fact that Lydia was somehow not in class yet, and in a scramble managed to transfer himself and all his belongings over to the desk next to her in one go. Of course, he had not managed to scramble silently, so Allison jolted up and gave him a wide eyed look which quickly turned into a suspicious one. 

“You better not be saving that seat for Scott.” 

He raised his hands in surrender. “Promise I’m not. I swear to santa.” She narrowed her eyes at him so he plowed on. “Ok, ok, I saw that you were looking at an old book and old books are like my fatal flaw, I just can’t resist them, I have to know what they are about. This one time when I was five we were at the library and I had wandered into the adult section and saw this really old looking book on top of a shelf that I couldn’t reach so I managed to climb the bookshelf and get it but then I was so pleased about it I forgot about climbing down and ended up falling and breaking my arm.” 

She giggled at him before smiling and saying, “I believe you, and yes, it’s an old book. My aunt gave it to me, it talks about our family heritage and ancestors.” 

“Sweet! Learn anything exciting? One of my mom’s great great great something uncles was an honest to god pirate but that’s the only cool thing in my genealogy.” 

“Actually, yes, apparently the Argent name comes from an ancestor in France who defeated a great wolf like beast and saved their village from being destroyed. He defeated it with a silver arrow so took the name Argent in memory of that.” 

“Ok, yeah, that’s much cooler than my ten times removed uncle who was a pirate.” 

She looked like she was about to say more when the teacher called attention to the start of class. Lydia hurried in at that moment followed closely by Scott. Lydia sat down at the nearest desk without even looking around but Scott found Stiles and Allison almost instantly and his eyes widened at the seating choices. He started to move towards them when the teacher’s cleared throat made him veer over to a seat at the back of the classroom. Stiles glanced at Allison whose entire demeanor had changed to sadness as she plucked at the edge of a book page while shooting a confused look at Lydia. 

At the brief period between classes Stiles found it easier then he thought it would be to avoid Scott as the boy seemed intent on following Allison. Rolling his eyes at the obsession he shot off a text to Peter. 

To Bossman: _looks like aunt K is trying to intro A to the family legacy. Gave her a book on the Argent fam history. Something bout a beast in france?_

He had to put his phone before he even entered the room for his next class because chemistry, well, because Harris really. He was startled to realize that even before he entered the room he could tell Harris was in a bad mood. Meekly coming in, he slunk towards the back and kept his head down while pulling out his book and notebook. He had no desire to try to antagonize Harris on his first day at school as a werewolf. 

Harris, though, got distracted from any usual antagonism towards Stiles because Scott, Allison, Lydia and Jackson were all missing. He had grip his pen tight to keep himself from pulling out his phone to check things. They all had to endure scowls, huffing and general threats towards all the students for five minutes before Harris seemed to remember Stiles was even in his class. Just as the teacher looked like he was going to somehow blame Stiles for all four students disappearing act, another student managed to light their table on fire even though today's experiment had nothing to do with flammables (Stiles mentally gave another thanks to the wolf deities), as Harris spent the rest of class dealing with the fallout of that. 

Partly to continue avoiding Scott and partly because he wanted to do it before he chickened out, during the lunch period, he made his way down to Finstock’s office to quit the lacrosse team. The talk with Coach was both easy and terrible at the same time. On the one hand Finstock didn’t really care since he was a benchwarmer who sucked at the game, on the other hand, Coach’s weirdness hated it when players quit his team regardless of how good they were or how much they played. Thankfully his prepared lecture on the history of people quitting sports teams in highschool to then go on and achieve greatness in college was annoying enough that Finstock let him go after ten minutes instead of the thirty that Stiles had been anticipating. 

Since he still had time before afternoon classes, Stiles made his way to the library with full plans to look up both wolf deities and also magic. As he entered, he got distracted as both Peter and Derek (finally) texted him back. 

From Bossman: Interesting. If you can find out more without making her suspicious please do so. It would be good information to have on how much they have told her. 

From GF: When is your lacrosse practice done? 

To Bossman: will do. Jackson not in school today. 

To GF: just quit lacrosse, so done at 3. 

From Bossman: I leave him up to you unless you inform me of a direct threat. You may also direct Derek to check up on him if you desire. 

From GF: that’s smart. 

He frowned a little at Peter’s response, really not sure how to take it. Also, the idea of him directing Derek to do something? As if. While he was enjoying pushes the born wolf’s buttons, he wasn’t dumb enough to actually try and tell the beta to do something for Stiles. Shaking his head, he went to hide in his favorite corner for the remainder of the lunch period. Distracted by figuring out his response to Peter he pretty much tripped over then fell on top of Allison. Down he went in a tangle of backpack, books, phone and limbs while Allison let out what would have been a shriek if she hadn’t had the presence of mind to clamp her hands over her mouth. 

“Oh my freaking stars. I am so so sorry. Holy shit, I guess you totally believe my story about breaking my arm when I was two now, don’t you? Are you ok? I didn’t break you did I?” 

Allison started giggling, then laughing, which caused Stiles to start laughing as well. It was several minutes before the two of them got themselves under control and somehow ended up sitting in the corner shoulder to shoulder. 

Still grinning, Allison said, “You are correct, I totally believe you now. How have you ever played lacrosse without breaking everything?” 

“Ouch, my dear lady, you wound me. Probably because Coach has never let me play an actual game. Also, won’t be an issue any more because I just quit a few minutes ago.” 

“Oh, um, I’m sorry?” 

“Nothing to be sorry for, I just realized while as fun as it is sitting on the bench and doing nothing, I could try and find something else to do that I might have a shot at actually being good at.” 

“That sounds like you made the right choice then.” 

“Thanks. Sooo….not to pry, but I’ll be honest, I’m really bad at nor prying, it’s my insatiable curiosity, I’d tell you a story about my five year old self and the great stolen pie case that is still the highlight of my career as a detective but I’m pretty sure you don’t want to hear that right now, so...anyways...I know why I came in here to hide, but why did you need to come in here to hide? I mean, you are missing out on all the gossip and plans for the dance upcoming on Friday with Lydia.” Stiles ending this ramble with a wince, Allison was now looking down, her fingers wrapped tight around her backpack strap and was twisting it tightly.

“Actually, hearing about your great detective triumph sounds nice and not full of drama...it’s just...oh shit…” she wiped the start of tears of her face, “...sorry, it’s just...I found out from someone else that Lydia and Scott were making out again in between English and Chem. And when I confronted them, Lydia called me a boyfriend stealing whore and said I had clearly been going after Jackson which made this fair so yeah…” She ducked her head away as she trailed off. 

Stiles had to look away too, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Fuck. Allison. I’m sorry, that was really shitty of them to do that and for Lydia to say that.” 

Allison, trying to wipe more tears away, gave him an attempt at a smile, then continued by saying, “On top of that my dad is really mad that Derek Hale is no longer wanted by the police and when I tried to ask why, he got mad at me, which turned into a long lecture about safety and how much I should never go near Scott or Jackson right now. And...I just _know_ my parents and Kate are lying to me about something. I know it. I’m so tired of everything. I hate moving. I hate being older than everyone in my class. And here I am crying like a stupid girl to my ex’s best friend…” 

Stiles felt a bit frozen for a minute, he could more than just smell and see her tears, he could taste her grief in the air around them. Not sure what else to do he hesitantly put an arm around her shoulder and then pulled her in tight when she fell against his chest sobbing. When her tears started to dry up he pulled a way a little so he eased up but kept his arm loose around her shoulders. When he felt her relax a little he started to ramble.

“You know how when you’re upset and rationally you know all these logical reasons why you shouldn’t be as upset as you are, and you keep telling yourself that, but it only makes you feel worse, then when you tell someone else why you’re upset, they tell you the same rational things you already know which then makes you feel worse than worse...all you really want is for someone to tell you that it’s ok that you are crying, like, more than ok, you should be crying because all those things that have made you upset don’t matter if they aren’t rational, sometimes you need to cry...and I’ll shut up now because I’m probably doing the thing without meaning to do the thing…” 

“Stiles?” 

“...Yeah?” 

“Thank you.” 

They sat there together until the bell rang for the end of lunch. Stiles’ instincts were completely on board with this as it fulfilled all sorts of normal Stiles’ protective tendencies combined with the wolf part of him urging him into scenting and cuddling to be a part of that. Smelling that Allison’s scent gradually shifted back to a warm honey by the time the bell rang he was pretty sure it was good for her too. 

The rest of the day seemed to drag by as he was distracted by deciding if he should tell Allison about werewolves and hunters. And Jackson, ugg Jackson. By the time the final bell had rung his brain had run through so many scenarios he wasn’t sure what was up or down at the moment. Finally, deciding Jackson was the priority and that he shouldn’t talk to Allison without permission from Peter anyways he made his way into the parking lot. Making his way towards the back of the lot he noticed a familiar scent coming from where his jeep was.

“shit…Hey Scott.” 

“Stiles, I’ve been -- Why do you smell like Allison?” 

“We have class together? We were both in the library during lunch?” 

“What? Did you follow her? Is that why you were sitting next to her in english?” 

“Dude, chill. No. I didn’t follow her.” 

Scott crowded into his space. “Is this what Peter’s making you do? Stalk Allison so he knows where she is when he wants to hurt her? That’s not ok!” 

“Woah, no, no, no.” Shoving back into Scott’s space he crowded him up closer to then around to the other side of the jeep where less people were. Gripping his friend’s arm he tried to keep as calm as he could. “Look, you have valid reasons thinking Peter might want to hurt her. But he won’t, ok? He’s only after the ones who are responsible for the fire. Allison is totally innocent. She doesn’t even know what her family is.” 

Throwing off Stiles’ hands Scott snarled at him. “You don’t know that, you don’t know anything.” Taking a step back Scott took deep breaths and tightened his hands into fists. “I’m going to fix this. I’m going to fix all of this, including you, he got into your head or something. Just...stay away from Allison.” 

With those words, something snapped in him. “Oh my god, no. You do not get to tell me that when you were making out with Lydia before school started! Why the fuck would you do that again? Allison was devastated man, devastated her friend would do that to her and I’m pretty sure you ruined any chance you ever would have had to get back together with her.” 

Scott reeled back as if he had been struck and for the first time lately, he seemed unsure. Stuttering slightly, he said, “But...Lydia said…she said that it would help me get Allison back, that it would make her jealous and realize what a good catch I am.” 

Stiles had the strong urge to just drive away right there, he did not need this bullshit drama on top of everything else. Something in him though had a protective flare up about Allison, he felt like they had become friends in the library earlier and, maybe it was the wolf in him now, because inside he was snarling against Scott for daring to hurt someone that could be pack. 

Pulling in some deep breaths, he managed to say calmly, “Scott, Lydia was using you to get revenge on Allison who she is blaming for Jackson breaking up with her. I know I’ve had a slightly creepy and unhealthy obsession with Lydia for a while, but I never was blind to her vindictive side. She doesn’t let herself truly care about many people but Jackson was one of them. Please don’t become one of her pawns in these games she plays, back off Allison for a bit, let her process, and then maybe you’ll be able to start over with her.” 

“You mean, back off so you can sweep in.” Scott said, growling slightly at the end. Stiles just stared at him in shock. 

“Uh what?” 

Scott crowded up against him again, and yup, definitely growling was happening. “You heard what I said. I bet you were just waiting for this opening, weren’t you? Now that it’s obvious Lydia will never go for you, you’ve set your sights on another girl that’s taken. She said you would do this.” 

“What, who, Lydia?” 

Scott just barreled on, ignoring Stiles’ gobsmacked expression and pounding heart. “Yes, Lydia, she really opened my eyes to you, you know? She pointed out that all you do is just find someone that you can worship and obsess over and how creepy that is, how the only reason you were ever nice to me is because I was new and you pulled me in and isolated me from the rest of them. And then as soon as I got strong enough and started branching out, you try to get me to stop doing those things, stop being friends with other people, tell me I can’t see Allison.” 

Stiles felt like the air was constricting in his lungs, he almost didn’t recognize Scott, this look on his friend’s face and the ugly words coming out. Scott pushed him, and the pain of his back hitting his jeep forcefully pulled him back into the moment. Scott just kept talking, every word felt like a knife was digging in deeper. 

“You just couldn’t stand it! Me being better than you, so now you got yourself bitten, and now you want to steal my Allison. Go away Stiles, leave Allison alone, leave Lydia alone or you’ll regret it.” 

“Scott…” Stiles managed to gasp out, blindly reaching out but Scott grabbed the arm and twisted, shoving Stiles to the ground, he looked like he was about to keep going when he got ripped away and slammed face first into the parking lot. Stiles managed to scramble away and pull himself together enough to register that Peter was kneeling next to Scott with his claws digging into the teen’s shoulder and his eyes blazing red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My explanation for as how/why Scott would get this nasty is that 1. he's very easily manipulated, and Lydia knew all the right buttons to push, 2. with Stiles becoming a wolf and getting sucked into Peter's pack, Scott is losing his pack so the wolf is getting harder to control and 3. as we saw in season 1 and 2, Scott is not rational at all when it comes to Allison and has a very distorted view of her as this perfect princess instead of a real, living, person. 
> 
> The next update might take a little longer to come out. On my final edit/read through I realized I had some plot holes and I'd veered too far into OCC land for some of the characters. So I'm rewriting a decent portion of the next two chapters. I do know where I'm going though, so hopefully won't take me too long.


	4. I mean to be your pack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got into a zone yesterday with writing so next chapter is here earlier than I expected. Also, it meant I added a whole bunch of character building and world building stuff so there will be at least one more chapter than expected. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy the Steter feels! I wasn't planning on addressing this fully in this story but Peter basically was like, ha, yeah I'm not waiting completely.

“Enough.” The command by the alpha made Stiles whine and tilt his neck up. The effect on Scott was much more drastic, the struggling teen went completely limp, breathing heavily, but glassy eyed against the hard surface of the parking lot. Peter moved the clawed hand to Scott's neck, the alpha squeezed and let out a low, rumbled growl that seemed to reverberate through the mostly empty lot. 

Stiles was now shivering, the panic that had been creeping in on him since Scott had started attacking him was now making his vision blurry. He let out a gasp and doubled over, he could feel his alpha’s displeasure coming through in the pack bond and he was terrified he was about to get rejected all over again. He felt a warm hand touch his shoulder and he jerked away with a whimper. 

“Peter.” The voice attached to the hand was speaking, it sounded angry as well. Stiles tried to edge further away from it, he didn’t want to make anyone else angry. Shaking, he curled up on the asphalt. Maybe they would all just go away and he could lay here until the panic left him. “ _Alpha_.” The voice was more insistent this time, and there was a low pitched whining sound coming from somewhere. The anger Stiles had felt coming through the bond abruptly stopped, replaced with...something, that in his panicking mind, he couldn’t fully figure out. 

“Oh sweetheart...” Another voice, no, the alpha’s voice, crooned in his ear and before he could wriggle away, arms were around him. He was pulled up and held steady against a warm chest. Warmth flooded through him, desperate for more he turned his face and burrowed into the warmth, a pleased rumble went through the alpha and Stiles sank into it all. Distantly he heard more voices talking but as he struggled to comprehend what they were saying, a hand ran over his head and his alpha spoke again. “It’s all right sweetheart, I’ve got you, you’re safe now, I’ll get you home.” With those soothing words, Stiles gave into the warmth and felt himself drift off into darkness. 

The first thing Stiles registered as he was waking up was warmth, the second was that the warmth was coming from a body behind him, the third was that this body was pressed against him tightly and one arm was firmly around his waist and the other was under his head. Contentment was flowing through him and he let himself bask in it. Gradually, however, the events of the afternoon came back to him. Stiffening slightly, he tried to start wriggling away, only for the arm around him to grip more tightly. 

“Stay.” A deep voice rumbled behind him. Stiles went boneless at the command, however, his mind was awake and busy now, so he quickly put all the clues together and turned bright red. He was shirtless, in a bed and Peter Hale was spooning him (aggressively spooning him) and now was...holy shit, were those lips? Gentle kisses were being placed along the back of his neck and shoulders. It was suddenly way too warm in the room. 

“Peter!” Stiles said, with a slightly strangled yelp, as the alpha turned a kiss into a slight nip. 

A warm chuckle sounded behind him. “I’m sorry pet, I just couldn’t help myself, all this beautiful skin, just waiting to be marked.” 

“Oh god…” Stiles arched his back as Peter pressed a hard, teeth filled kiss, to the exact place where he’d been bitten. Peter pulled away finally, letting Stiles flop onto in back, panting slightly and desperately trying to will away the growing arousal. Cheeks still flushed, he looked up into the amused alpha’s eyes. 

“What the fuck Peter.” 

Peter’s smirk widened. “You needed to relax, cuddling with your alpha fixed most of the bond rejection from earlier, but this…” The alpha trailed a light finger along Stiles’ cheek and neck. “This...cements it even more, you accepting me, letting me put my scent on you.” He leaned in again, shoving his face into Stiles’ neck and breathing in deeply. Stiles’ brain turned to complete mush, as he arched his back again with a moan. What the hell was going on. He frantically tried to pull himself together and weakly pushed against the alpha’s shoulders. 

“Ok, creeperwolf, off now, explain whatever the fuck this is with more words and actually explations, and what the hell do you you mean by bond rejection??” 

With a deep, put upon sigh, Peter pulled off him and sat up. Stiles pushed himself up as well so he could be eye level with the alpha. He gave the wolf a halfhearted glare, it was hard to dredge up any actual anger, what with the contented, happy feeling rolling off the alpha, and the peace he was feeling himself. And ok, ok, he had really liked the kisses and cuddling. He just didn’t know what they meant. Was it just normal pack behavior or did....no, he told himself firmly, no way. There was no way it meant anything more than just an alpha comforting a pack member, no way _Peter_ could be interested in _him_. 

“By bond rejection, I mean that you still had a lingering pack bond with Scott. It was there before I turned you as you were the only one to support him and help him at the beginning. After you were turned and Scott continued to reject me as alpha, your acceptance of me made him subconsciously slowly start to reject you as well. That could have been overcome since you were still actively seeking him out as part of your pack, but it sounds like he let someone poison him against you, and when you realized he was never going to accept you as a wolf, the bond broke completely.” Peter said all this, his voice soft and eyes compassionate. 

“Oh...that makes sense...but, does that mean the rejection only happened because he wouldn’t accept you and he didn’t have control over it?” Stiles said, feeling a little desperate for that to be true. As Peter had been talking he was remembering the pain he had felt at Scott’s words, but maybe Scott hadn’t truly meant them, maybe he was just taken over by the wolf or something. 

“Stiles…” Peter’s voice broke him out of this thought spiral and one look at the alpha made him realize that the hope wasn’t true. Blinking, he turned away, he could feel tears forming in his eyes.

Peter slowly continued talking, “When someone becomes a werewolf there is no true separation of man and wolf. We are one, there are instincts and magic that takes time for bitten wolves to adjust to but it cannot truly make someone do anything they don’t want to do. The wolf in you simply magnifies your natural emotions and urges, makes it harder for you to keep them inside. The longer you are a wolf, if you are in a stable pack, with a stable pack bond, these get easier to control and don’t control you.” 

Stiles nodded rapidly, not trusting his voice to speak. Peter reached out a hand and gently wiped away the tears that were falling. Giving into the desire then, Stiles crowded back into Peter’s space and let the older werewolf wrap him back up in strong arms. 

“I’m so sorry, and I’m sorry I let myself get so angry with Scott that I forgot to block it from you. I forgot you were so new to this, you’ve been doing so well, that I didn’t realize you wouldn’t be able to tell that I wasn’t angry with you.” They sat there for a while longer, gradually Stiles’ tears stopped and then he just let himself soak in Peter’s warmth and care. It had been so long since he had felt this loved and cared for. Peter shifting his face towards the door seemed to break the spell and Stiles pulled back again. “Come in Derek.” 

Now Stiles could sense Derek’s presence as the door opened and the beta almost hesitantly came in. He looked at Stiles’ anxiously, eyebrows furrowed. “Hey sourwolf, thanks for your help with the rescue earlier.” Stiles said, trying to grin, it mostly failed but it did cause Derek to relax enough to glare at him, which had been the goal. 

“Don’t call me that.” Derek said, with a grumble. “Dinner’s ready and…” The beta trailed off and looked self conscious for a moment. 

“What?” Stiles said, feeling a mild irritation. “Dude, I can handle it.” 

“Don’t call me that either. Ok, fine, Scott’s finally stopped making a racket in the basement and I need to know what to do with him.” 

Stiles turned to Peter in surprise, “You brought him here?” 

“Well, I wasn’t going to leave an omega werewolf alone, in the middle of a highschool parking lot. Especially one who just broke his only tie to his humanity and is currently obsessed with a girl.” Peter growled lightly and then sighed, “Leave him there for now. I’ll deal with it after dinner.” 

When the three of them got into the kitchen, Jennifer was already there. She had a couple of books and a notebook spread out on one end of the table and was already eating. She looked up when they came in and then, to Stiles complete shock, got up and hugged him. He returned it and automatically put his face in her neck to get her scent before he realized he was doing it. Pulling back, he felt extremely awkward, but she simply went back to her food and books. He looked over towards the two born wolves but they were engaged in a conversation with their eyebrows so he decided to just let it go and slunk into the kitchen to grab food off the stove. 

On his way back to the table, Derek crowded into his space to breathe heavily into his ear for about 20 seconds before going to get food for himself. Derek, he decided, was just incapable of doing anything the normal way, even wolf things. Or...who knew, maybe breathing in ears was a normal wolf habit. He made a mental note to ask Peter about it later, or maybe just later, it might be fun to watch the beta twitch when he asked. Putting all these thoughts and others aside for the moment he dug into the delicious roast beef, carrots and potatoes. When Derek returned to the table he shoved a glass of water in Stiles’ face. 

“Thanks dude.” Stiles said, then slurped obnoxiously at the water, grinning in triumph as both Peter and Derek winced in unison. Peter reached over and cuffed him lightly on the head. Still smiling he went to fill up his plate a second time, this time he ate slower and paid more attention to the goings on around him. Peter and Jennifer were now having a conversation about alarm spells and protection runes. Fascinated, Stiles’ attention was taken up with this for the rest of the meal. It wasn’t until they were all helping clean up that Stiles remembered that Scott was still there. He was about to ask what Peter was going to do when he heard a car pulling up outside. Confused, he turned to Peter, only to find the alpha tense and focused on the noise. 

Biting out a curse, Jennifer paled, and moved towards the front door, Peter hot on her heels. Stiles moved to follow, only to be stopped by Derek gripping his arm tight. He tried to tug out of the hold, only for Derek to growl lightly and flick him in the ear. Oh. Right...Stiles closed his eyes and worked on focusing, the door opened and he heard Peter’s drawling voice. 

“Alan, well, this is a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure of the appearance of the former Hale emissary?” 

Emissary? Stiles was getting so many mental notes to ask about later. His brain stuttered to a halt though when he recognized the voice of Dr. Deaton in response to Peter. The hell? Since when did Scott’s boss become involved in all this? 

“Peter. I do believe you have a certain employee of mine here. His mother is concerned about his absence.” 

“Is that so?” Peter sounded almost bored, but as Stiles concentrated he could feel the annoyance, bordering on anger, emanating off the alpha. 

“I know that the last six years have been a trying time for you, Peter, but you still must be aware of the legalities when it comes to minors and holding them against their will or their parent’s will.” Dr. Deaton said, his voice still mild and even. 

“Yes, _trying_ is exactly how I would describe it. How trying it was for me to lay, incapacitated in a hospital bed, all alone with every pack bond dsetroyed, too damaged to move but my mind fully functional. How trying it was for every single one of the cells in my body to heal themselves one by one. It was indeed, very trying, to wake up and realize that my entire pack was not dead, that the emissary who should have been by my side with healing spells and runes was not only not dead but still in the same town.” 

Peter’s voice had taken the same deadly, smooth tone from the night at the hospital and from the previous night with Jackson. Stiles’ shivered, he didn’t know how Dr. Deaton could continue to stand there so calmly, with no blip in his heart beat. Even out of sight, Stiles could feel the deadly threat that was the alpha moving into predator mode. Derek’s grip on his arm was becoming painful, but Stiles didn’t have the heart to get him to let go. He could feel the other beta’s distress and guilt, he shuffled closer to Derek so that they were touching. 

Deaton sighed deeply then said, “I am truly sorry for the pain you went through. It was, however, not my decision to make. As alpha, Laura, simply asked me to watch out for the land while she took Derek somewhere safe. They did not know if hunters would come after them or me, as emissary. As always, Peter, you put the blame on others instead of taking responsibility for yourself.” 

Peter’s voice turned cold and rigid. “Let’s cut to the point then. Why are you here for Scott McCall? What is he to you? It is my responsibility to look after a beta of my making, not yours.” 

“Scott has not, to my knowledge, accepted you as his alpha. In fact, a bite given without permission carries with it no obligation to the beta to submit to the one who gave it.” 

“I grow tired of these word games with you. State your purpose here.” 

“Very well, let Scott go or I will go to the sheriff and not only tell him you have kidnapped Scott but also that you have been spending time inappropriately with his underage son.” 

Stiles couldn’t help the choked sound he made at the last part. He tried once again to make a move to the door but Derek grabbed him and held him tight. 

“No, wait, if we react then he gets what he wants. Trust Peter, please Stiles.” Derek said, whispering frantically in Stiles’ ear. Trying to shove down the burning feeling that had welled up in him, Stiles stopped trying to tug away. He couldn’t help the low growl emanating from him though. 

“Fine. You will stay here. Jennifer will watch you.” Peter said, his voice clipped. The alpha walked down the hall away from the kitchen so Stiles was unable to see what was going on. Soon though, he heard Peter returned with a heartbeat that was painfully familiar. When they reached the door, the alpha spoke again. “Do you, Alan Deaton, druid, take responsibility for Omega McCall as a bitten wolf?” 

“I, Alan Deaton, druid, do take responsibility for Scott McCall. Your hands are now clean of him Alpha Hale.” 

“Very well. Druid Deaton, you should know I have already visited with Druid Morell and lodged my formal complaint against you as the former Hale emissary. I will also be reporting the status change of Omega McCall to her as your ward.” 

“I see.” Deaton said, and for the first time Stiles could have sworn he heard a blip in the heartbeat of the vet (or druid?). Just as he heard them turn to leave, Peter spoke one more time. 

“Oh, and Scott, if you ever approach my beta again in the manner you did earlier I will view it as a direct attack against my pack. Your new mentor here can explain to you what that means.” Before they had a chance to respond, Peter shut the door. As soon as the alpha returned to the room, Derek let go. Stiles felt unsure though, Peter was not meeting his eyes, instead looking to Jennifer as she came in behind him. 

“I didn’t think he was as strong as you.” Peter said, his voice mild but still with the edge of something terrifying in it. 

Jennifer winced and said, “He’s not. I just haven’t had the chance to lay the wards down as strong as I would have liked. Also, he still had a tenuous tie to the Hale pack as you hadn’t formally rejected him as your emissary until this moment. That would have allowed him entrance without tipping off the alarm spells.” Seeing Peter’s eyes turning red she hurriedly continued, “I will be fixing that immediately, alpha, it would help if the whole pack were to walk the boundary line with me, leaving blood at all four compass points.” 

Peter still felt like on the verge of lashing out, which made Stiles, without consciously thinking, move over and put an arm around the alpha’s waist and squeeze. Peter stayed stiff for a moment, before sighing and leaning slightly into Stiles’ embrace and turning his head to nuzzle lightly at the side of his face. Feeling good about himself, as he could feel the anger leaving his alpha, Stiles turned to Jennifer and asked, “So, what’s an emissary?” 

The witch had relaxed as well, and surprisingly answered without the usual level of annoyance she seemed to have for Stiles. “An emissary is a magic user attached to a pack, their role is to do many of the things that wolves cannot do, such as wards, alarm spells and healing the worst injuries. They also often act as the first point of contact with other pacts and will negotiate treaties and truces. And no, before you ask, I am not Peter’s emissary. I do not have the required people skills.” She gave Stiles a wry grin at that and he found himself returning it. Both Peter’s arms were around him now and the alpha had tucked his face into Stiles’ neck. It felt...nice, really nice. 

Jennifer continued talking, “I am fulfilling some of the magic side of things for now, most witches have a coven to protect them from hunters or dark magic users but Peter has offered me sanctuary as I no longer have the option of a coven.” She paused and looked away, Stiles felt a brief moment of grief off her. Peter unfurled himself from Stiles and reached out a hand to rub her shoulder. Jennifer gave him a small, sad smile. “To answer what I’m sure is another question you have, druids are not the same as witches, and yes, at some point I will sit down with you and explain it all in more detail but right now is not that time.” 

As much as Stiles desperately wanted to know all the things right this instant, he knew she was right so turned to Peter. “So...what was that about with Scott being Deaton’s responsibility…? And also, what the hell was that threat of his about?” 

Peter turned back to his neck and growled into it before answering. “The threat, my dear, should be fairly obvious. He was reminding me that you, too, are a minor and from his words I assume Scott already told him the details of how I bit you, he was also letting me know he has some power here too, that if he wanted, he could make it very hard for you to be near me if your father thinks I am taking advantage of you in that way.” 

“Asshole.” Stiles muttered, trying to repress the fear at not being able to be close to Peter. 

“Shh..pet, don’t worry, he knows that if he did that it would be considered directly against his oaths as a druid and as an emissary. It is considered very bad for someone in the community to keep a beta away from their alpha without just cause.” Peter pulled back slightly and met his gaze. “No one will ever take you away from me, unless you want them to. Understood?” Stiles nodded, fighting back tears for the third time that day. “Good. As for that other thing, it’s...complicated, it has to do with pack politics, druid politics, and with his former emissary status to my family. In short, this means that whatever Scott now does is reflective on him and that he is responsible for Scott remaining stable and not a threat to reveal the community.” 

“Ok, um, thanks, you know, for explaining and...well, thinking I’m worth all this…” he turned back to Jennifer, “Thank you too, I know I’m super annoying with needing to know everything, I swear I’ll try to be better, but it usually doesn’t work, but yeah, I’m used to everyone just telling me to shut up, so just tell me when I get too obnoxious, I don’t always notice it soon enough.” 

“Sweetheart, of course you are worth all this. And don’t mind Jennifer, she just has to see that you are serious about all this.” Peter said, turning a raised eyebrow towards the witch. 

She gave Stiles a tired smile in return. “I don’t find you obnoxious Stiles, I am sorry for my earlier coldness...it has been a long time since I’ve had something like this, and I’m finding it harder than I thought to adjust. But Peter, we really do need to walk that boundary line. If we do it as the moon is rising it will be stronger.” 

With that, there was a small flurry of movement as Jennifer went to collect some things she needed and Peter said he needed to make a quick phone call. Stiles and Derek finished cleaning up the kitchen and soon they were all ready to go out. 

Walking the boundary with the pack as the moon was rising was a very surreal experience. The bonds that Stiles had tentatively been able to feel before, now became strong lines running between all four of them. At each point on the compass, they all stopped and together dropped a tiny amount of blood on the ground, then Jennifer led them all through a vow of pack and protection. By the third time they had done this, Stiles’ skin was buzzing and his gums itching to drop his fangs and howl. He managed to keep himself together until after they finished but by then he could feel Derek vibrating next to him as well, so when the last vow was spoken he gave in and howled, Peter and Derek joining him. He felt a rush of elation, and was soon enveloped in a Hale hug sandwich. 

Back in the house, Peter made them all sit on the same sofa, made them all hot chocolate and put on a movie. Stiles barely had the presence of mind to text his dad that he was out at a friend’s before Peter was back and wrapped around him. He drifted off halfway through the movie, contentment thrumming gently through the pack bond. 

He woke up to an insistent prodding in his side, blearily, he realized it was someone poking him. Groaning, he tried to roll out of the way and bury his head under the blanket, only to be thwarted when the covers were pulled off him completely. He yelped and flailed sideways, only to be pounced upon by Peter, who easily held him down with two hands while straddling him. Stiles growled and brought up a knee to try and get the wolf off him, Peter just laughed and sprung back. Slumping forward, Stiles sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. 

“Why…?” He moaned out as he grumpily started to look around the room. It was the same room he’d woken up in the day before, though this time he took in more of it. He was broken out of his curiosity by Peter’s response. 

“Because you need to get up and shower if you want to eat breakfast before school. Now, get a move on, there should be clothes that fit you in the dresser over there.” Peter pointed to the wall closest to Stiles. The teen narrowed his eyes at Peter but before he could start interrogating him, the alpha had disappeared out of the room. Getting out of bed, he investigated the contents of the dresser, he was startled to realize that the entire dresser not only had clothes in his size, but also clothes that were very similar to his own wardrobe, just much nicer ones. Feeling even more out of his depth, he selected a simple jeans, shirt, and hoodie combo before padding into the large master bathroom. There were things for him here too, another towel on the towel rack, an extra toothbrush in the holder. He wondered if he should be more freaked out by this, instead he just felt very cared for and taken care of. 

When he got downstairs breakfast was already ready, though only Peter and Derek were in the kitchen. Stiles flung himself haphazardly into the chair and grabbed a still warm muffin off the tray in the middle of the table. Peter slid over a cup of coffee, filled with cream and sugar, just like Stiles liked it. He gave Peter another narrow eyed look before he got distracted by trying to steal bacon from Derek. The other beta didn’t seem verbal yet and was letting out almost adorable little growls as Stiles tried to jut in and grab the delicious strips of meat. 

He waited until they were mostly done eating and Derek was in the middle of a sip of coffee before asking as casually as he could. “So, Peter, are we supernaturally married or something? If we are, I think I missed that part.” Derek’s sharp inhale and coughing fit was everything Stiles hoped it would be, though he kept his gaze on Peter’s face. The alpha actually did look startled at the question, he placed his own coffee back down on the table, before responding in a mild tone. 

“And why would you ask such a question?” 

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Oh gee, I don’t know, how about all that kissing yesterday, or Deaton’s weird ass accusation, or you know, _the entire dresser full of clothes_ that you have for me in _your room_.” 

Peter leaned forward and pinched between his eyes. “I...I should have expected this question in some form or other. I suppose I did get a little over zealous yesterday, for that I apologize. I underestimated how much I would need to get you into as much of my space as possible after the altercation with Scott yesterday. The need to make sure you had my scent and claim was too strong for me to resist. However, this is something that is hard to explain to someone who is not a born wolf, I was planning to wait, as you are not 18, even though that in the supernatural community one is considered of age to make their own life decisions at 16 but --” 

“Oh my wolf gods, just get to the point already...wait, Peter, did you imprint on me like Jacob in twilight? Is that a real thing?!” 

Peter’s face went through multiple expressions and for once, the alpha seemed at a loss for words. Derek however, busted out laughing. Stiles stared wide eyed at the usual taciturn wolf while Peter gave his nephew a sour look. Derek just kept laughing, eventually wheezing out. “Imprinting, like twilight, gods, Peter, he is perfect for you.” Pulling himself mostly together, Derek, still chuckling, got up to leave the room. 

“Derek.” Peter said, sounding slightly desperate. 

“Nope, uncle Peter, you get to handle this one. You bit him on the damn neck, like an overeager puppy, and I am definitely not sticking around for this.” With that parting shot, the beta disappeared. 

Stiles whirled back to Peter. “You did!” 

“No.” Peter sounded incredibly pained. “I did not imprint on you like a duckling or...twilight,” The way Peter said ‘twilight’ made it sound like it physically pained him to say it, “Stiles, I...it’s not like that. There is no one person meant for a wolf out there, in fact, what this is only happens with alphas. It’s more like, when you are fully in tune with your wolf, your instincts will sometimes tell you if a person is right for you. When your normal rational thought would say you can’t possibly know any of this until you get to know the person, when you are fully immersed in your instincts, you just know. That doesn’t mean you have to be together, it’s still a choice, on both sides.” 

This last bit was emphasized and Stiles realized with a jolt that Peter was worried about his reaction to all this. Locking eyes with the wolf, he was startled to see uncertainty there, Peter was worried about Stiles not wanting him. This realization made him feel confused and off kilter. There was also deep want in the gaze, and Stiles flushed, remembering the feeling from the day before when he had told himself so firmly that Peter couldn’t possibly want him like that. 

“Oh, um, I...I don’t know what to say to this. I’m having trouble believing you actually want me...you’re sure it’s not just because you didn’t have any other options out there?” 

Peter’s gaze softened. “I’m very sure, that night in the forest, I was chasing your scent, Stiles, not Scott’s, my revenge plans got more urgent as I wasn’t fully processing but the only thing I could do was be terrified if I didn’t get to all of them first, they could hurt you. It’s not just about anyone, and the more I’ve gotten to know you, the more I know my instincts are right.” 

“Well, shit, I don’t know what to do then. I mean, you are amazing, and I...but...I can’t tell right now which way is up and all the wolf stuff is new to me, but I don’t want to disappoint you --” 

Peter reached over and grabbed his hand. “It’s ok, I have no expectations, I was going to just let this happen naturally, but I underestimated once again, your clever mind. Nothing has to happen now or ever if you don’t want it to. I can move all that stuff to a room of your own if you prefer. Whatever you decide, you’ll always have a place in my pack. For now, it would probably be easiest to continue as we are, tell me to back off if you want me to and I --” 

“No.” Stiles said, blurting out the word then blushing again at Peter’s delighted grin. “I mean, um, I like it, I...fuck, but please let’s go slow, ok? And 18, 18 is good, then Deaton can’t make trouble with my dad.” 

Peter squeezed his hand again and smiled at him, sharp and predatory. “I can definitely manage that. Now, I’m pretty sure you need to get going if you want to make it to school on time. Also, I realized putting Jackson completely as your responsibility was a bit much for your first week as a wolf. I’ve asked Derek to look in on him today and I want the two of you to tag team him.” 

Stiles let out a slow breath before grinning back. “Ok, thank you, alpha.” 

Peter’s eyes turned red as he got up and stalked over to loom above Stiles before dragging the new wolf up to stand with him. Leaning down, he nipped several times at Stiles’ neck and shoulder before placing several soft kisses there. Stiles pulled back with another grin and then quickly, before he lost his courage, he placed a fast kiss to Peter’s lips before practically sprinting out the door, stopping only to shove his shoes on before climbing in the jeep. His heart pounding slightly, he pulled away from the house, still smiling.


	5. I meant it to be a secret

On the drive into school, all the events of the past day, night and morning caught up with him and he had to pull over to have a quick freak out. He also had to freak out a bit that he wasn’t freaking out more because of Peter. Thankfully, the rest of the drive was long enough that after he had his mini panic he was able to mostly process the Peter thing by the time he got to the school. That he was attracted to Peter was a given, he knew he had been since the hospital, what he was worried about was if these emotions he was feeling were real or not. He wasn’t sure how to trust these new instincts. Just as he pulled into part though, he remembered Peter’s words from the previous night about how you are still you as a wolf, nothing new gets created, it just makes you less restrained. 

Somehow he had still managed to get to school early, having no desire to hang about the parking lot, he headed straight to class and began to research wolf deities on his phone. He also sent several texts to Derek to ask about mates and instincts and emotions. The beta sent him back similar answers as Peter had given. Derek did add that if he thought Peter was trying to manipulate Stiles’ emotions that he would kill Peter himself. This left Stiles feeling warm again, he sent off a quick, ’thanks sourwolf.’ before putting away his phone as Allison hurried into class to sit next to Stiles again. 

He frowned as he took in her appearance, instead of in careful waves, her hair was pulled back in a messy bun. She was wearing jeans and boots with just a shirt and jacket. Her eyes were red and she wasn’t wearing any make up. It was a far cry from her usual carefully put together look. 

Hesitantly, he asked, “You ok?”

Looking over at him, she managed a small smile. “Yes. No. I don’t know.” 

“You want to skip lunch again and talk about it? Or not talk, I can distract you with more embarrassing stories of my childhood if that helps more.” 

“I’d like that, thanks Stiles, I don’t deserve it, but I’m so glad you are being a friend right now.” 

He waved off her thanks and went silent as a moody Scott stormed in, glaring at Stiles before switching to mournful sad eyes at Allison. She looked back down at her desk and refused to meet Scott’s eyes. Stiles just gave Scott a completely bland look in return. Jackson was next in, the jock paused and slowly made his way over to sit in front of Stiles. In between classes both Allison and Jackson stuck close to Stiles, though Jackson ignored him while doing it. He and Allison however, started talking about inconsequential things, books they had read or tv shows they watched. It turned out they actually had a decent amount in common. 

When it was time for lunch he and Allison started towards the library, only to have Jackson follow them. Allison shot him an uncertain look so Stiles paused and sighed. When Jackson gave him a look, he pointedly raised his eyebrows. 

“Dude, what’s up with you?” Stiles said, genuinely curious at what the jock thought he was doing. 

Jackson bristled, “Nothing, Stilinski, can’t a student go to the library without an interrogation?” 

“Normal people yes, you, not so much.” 

Jackson glared again, then when Stiles didn’t budge, he muttered a curse and stormed off. Rolling his eyes, Stiles and Allison resumed their trek to the same hidden corner as the previous day. After they were settled Allison started talking. 

“I was looking for my necklace last night and went to the car and overheard my dad and Kate talking about hunting something...or someone. I tried to ask him about it this morning and he blew up. He shouted at me, then Kate, then mom shouted at him and Kate at both of them. I don’t get it, I tried to ask why they wouldn’t tell me things but he told me to just go to school…I’m just so done with the lies and I...I might be going crazy because I’m actually starting to think that the history of our family might not be just a story but that’s crazy right? Totally crazy?” 

Stiles’ mind was racing, shit, he’d forgotten in all the craziness to ask Peter about talking to Allison and telling her the truth. He reached over and grabbed her hand before speaking, “I don’t think that’s crazy at all. I...shit, Ally, I’m sorry all this is happening, it’s just such bullshit, I wish…” he looked away, everything in him was saying he could trust her, but years of being burned by people was telling him not to be stupid. He didn’t know what to do, he pulled out his phone and sent a text before he could talk himself out of it. 

To Bossman: _can I tell A about us? I know it sounds crazy but I trust her, don’t know why…_

Allison was staring miserably at the wall, her legs pulled up and her chin on her knees. “It just all seems so insane, right? That monsters could be real.”

Stiles winced at her words. Rubbing his buzzcut, he tried to choose his words carefully, which naturally meant he fell into a long winded ramble. “Why would they all have to be monsters?” At the incredulous stare he got in return to that question, he gestured wildly and then plunged in. 

“Ok, yeah, I know, I sound nuts. But I got stuck on a research binge about a month ago about werewolves, which is what that story you were telling me sounded like it was talking about, by the way, and all throughout different cultures they are different ways of viewing them. The norse viewed men who could turn into wolves as great warriors who helped defend their people and lands, the romans worshipped wolves and believed their first emperors were raised by them, in Irish mythology several of their gods turn into wolves...I just mean, there are so many stories out there, that just because one book says one thing doesn’t mean it’s true for all the things.” 

He paused for breath and to try and gage how she was taking this. Her scent still felt sad and frustrated but there was also a hint of something else in it. He wished he was better at figuring out what all the different smells meant for emotions but as he looked at her face, he saw that she was frowning thoughtfully and she seemed just a little less freaked out than before. Taking a deep breath he continued on. 

“Also, old stories like the one you have were always written with a purpose, especially ones with monsters in them. The brothers grimm were written as warnings and moral lessons. So even if the ‘monster’ was real in the story, it doesn’t mean it happened exactly as it says it did. History is always written by the victors, you know, so one would have to account for the natural bias. Like, does it say why the beast was attacking the village? For all we know, maybe someone had killed one of it’s cubs, or, why wasn’t there more than one beast? Wolves are almost always in packs, maybe it’s whole family died and it went insane with grief…” 

When he trailed off, Allison looked over him, she was smiling a little, which he was definitely going to count as a win. “You know, you’re right. I don’t have the whole story here, because that is all that it is right now, a story.” She said, sounding more certain as she went on, “There could be so many explanations to this. I’m glad you don’t think I’m crazy though. I just...why wouldn’t they tell me?” 

Stiles shrugged, he still didn’t have a response from Peter and he was getting nervous. “Maybe they wanted you to have a normal childhood and just be afraid of the normal, kid type monster under your bed instead of a big hairy one with red eyes.” 

She giggled a little and leaned against his shoulder. “Maybe…” 

His phone buzzed and he pulled it up. From bossman: _I think it could be an acceptable risk, but not until I tell you more about the fire and the Argent family. Can you come over again tonight?_ Wondering what more he needed to know but not willing to ask right away, he texted back a quick yes and put the phone away again. He contemplated what he should say next. He didn’t want to push too hard, but he hated lying to her. He was about to say something but then Jackson appeared. He was about to get out a biting comment when Jackson started talking. 

“Hey, so McCall saw both of you weren’t at lunch, and I’m sorry...but I didn’t realize he was close enough to hear me tell Danny I saw the two of you together, so now he’s on the warpath to find you. Just so you know.” 

Allison’s eyes widened as she looked between the two of them. “Wait, why does Scott care about that?” She asked, confusion evident on her face. 

Stiles winced, “Ah...well, I had my own lovely confrontation yesterday afternoon, after school where he accused me of swooping in to steal you away from him.” 

Allison’s eyes blazed. “How dare he, the arrogant son of a bitch.” She got to her feet and marched off, eyes blazing, leaving the two boys to gape after her. Scrambling to his feet, Stiles stumbled after her, Jackson in his wake. 

Allison found Scott just outside the locker rooms, he looked like he had just run through the school. His eyes lit up when he saw her then scowled again when he saw Stiles and Jackson trailing along behind her. Stiles could see when he decided to just ignore them and focus on Allison. His grin widened and he hurried to meet her in the hall, apparently not noticing her anger, as his words soon proved. 

“Hey, I’ve been looking all over for you. I found this in class.” The last bit was accompanied by him outstretching his hand with her wolf pendant in it. Stiles winced as he saw her look from it to Scott, her face blank and he could see her start to put the pieces together. 

“Where did you get that?” 

Scott looked confused, “I told you, I found it on the floor of class.” 

“Which class?” 

“What?” 

“Which class, Scott, which class did you find this in.” 

Scott was now looking flustered. “Uh, I don’t remember but --” 

Allison cut him off, “You don’t remember which class you found the necklace that is my family heirloom?” 

“No, look, it was a few days ago and --” 

“So last week, you found it last week?” 

Scott nodded hurriedly, “yeah.” 

“But not where you found it.” 

“No...I’m confused, why does this matter?” 

“It matters, Scott,” Allison said, her words biting, “because I specifically decided not to wear it last week because the clasp had broken and I needed to get a new one. So, I want to know how you possibly could have found it somewhere when I know for a fact that I left it in my room.” 

Scott’s eyes went wide and Stiles could see the teen begin to internally panic a bit. “Uh, I don’t know, I mean, I, uh, yeah I know I didn’t find it there, I haven’t been in your room since you broke up with me, so, I just know it was somewhere or someone gave it to me, I don’t remember which but…” His eyes lit upon Stiles again, oh shit, this wasn’t going to be good he thought. “...Stiles! Stiles was with me, you should definitely ask Stiles about it.” 

Jackson huffed out an incredulous laugh. “Seriously, McCall? That’s what you are going with, blame the best friend for your freakish stalker habits? Unfucking believable, what the hell did you ever see in him, Stilinski?” 

“This has nothing to do with you!” Scott said to Jackson before turning back to Allison. “Jackson doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he’s just mad because of Lydi --” At the darkening look on Allison’s face, Scott cut himself off and gave Stiles a pleading look. Stiles’ couldn’t believe it, after the shit Scott had said to him yesterday, the teen had the audacity to not only blame him for the theft of the necklace but also look to him for help with Allison. He just rolled his eyes and then looked away. 

“I’m still waiting.” Allison’s voice was calm but Stiles could see the slight tremor in her hands and could smell her distress. 

“I told you, Stiles gave it to me, he would know…” 

“Stop it. Stop it, stop lying, oh my god, you are always lying! First about the party, then that night in the school, and now this, blaming Stiles isn’t just stupid, it’s pathetic. I can’t believe I ever let myself fall for you, I’m such a moron for thinking you were sweet and kind.” She snatched the necklace back. “What else did you do in my room? Have you been stalking me this whole time, have you been…” She trailed off and her eyes widened in horror and she started to back away. Scott was beginning to look frantic. 

“What? No, no, no...I haven’t...I’m not...Stiles betrayed me, he just wants to break us apart, can’t you see that? He’s jealous! Please Allison...I...I love yo --” 

“Stop, stop it. Leave me alone. I don’t want to see you ever near my house again.” 

“I can’t do that! You don’t understand, I have to protect you, Peter, he’ll...no, you don’t understand.” 

Allison bumped into Stiles, her breathing was coming in harsh bursts and she felt only a few minutes away from a breakdown but she still managed to respond. “What are you even talking about? How could you possibly protect me more than my dad, who sells firearms for a living, go away Scott, I mean it. Stiles, please, let’s go? Can we go, can you take me home?” 

Stiles nodded, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Yeah, I can do that. Jackson?” He looked at the jock, who was still staring at Scott with a look of disgust. Scott however was laser focused on the arm Stiles had around Allison, he gave a sudden charge forward, eyes glowing and grabbed Allison and wrenched her away from Stiles. She let out a sharp cry of pain as Scott forcibly put himself between her and Stiles. 

“You can’t go with him. You don’t understand, he’s on Peter’s side, he’ll bring you to him.” Scott said, desperately pleading with Allison. 

Stiles gaped before saying, “Holy shit Scott, how many times...Allison, are you ok? Seriously, Scott, let this go, she’s not in danger.” 

Allison tried to back away and get around Scott but the teen just tightened his grip on her arm. She was starting to cry and Stiles was starting to get genuinely worried. He traded a glance with Jackson who was also looking worried. He took a small step forward, only for Scott to back up and tug Allison with him. She was scrambling for something in her bag now, she found whatever she was looking for and quickly brought her arm up and pepper sprayed Scott right in the face. Scott screeched and let her go, stumbling backwards and she flung herself towards Stiles and Jackson. Stiles jumped forward at the same time and took the distraction to use one of the new moves Peter had taught him to twist Scott’s arm behind him and shove the other teen to the ground, landing heavily on top. 

Looking back, he saw Allison had her phone out and was shakily dialing as Jackson moved in front of her, offering an arm that she sank into as the call was picked up. 

“911, what is your emergency?” 

“Uh, yes, hi, my name is Allison Argent and I’d like to report an assault. I’m at the highschool and one of my classmates just attacked me.” 

“Miss Argent, is there a teacher there? Usually school altercations are handled by the administration.” 

“Um, no, but…” Allison trailed off, tears rolling down her face. Stiles held out a hand and gestured for the phone. Shaking, Allison handed it to him. 

“Hey, Shawna, it’s Stiles, no, I’m not the one who assaulted her, yes it is serious, if you could send Tara down that would be super. No, no teacher was present, but me and another classmate was, we haven’t had time to go get one. I am currently sitting on top of who hurt her. I don’t know if she needs to go to the hospital, she probably does, they should make sure her wrist isn’t broken, I think I heard something snap.” He talked back and forth with Shawna for a couple more minutes before she said that Tara had arrived. He directed Jackson to go with Allison to go get the deputy. As soon as they were out of sight, Scott started trying to throw him off again. 

“I can’t believe you’d call the police! Why did you betray me like this?” 

Stiles felt exhausted all over again. Groaning, he twisted Scott’s arm slightly. “Dude...just...stop, please, can’t you see you terrified her? I just...shit, Scott...what is wrong with you?” 

Before his former friend could reply, he saw Deputy Luke Parker come down the hall. The deputy raised his eyebrows and told Stiles to move. After getting Scott up, the Deputy escorted both boys to the Principal's office. The Principal, plus Miss Morrell were already there with Allison, Tara and Jackson. Jackson was waiting outside, while the rest were chatting with the door closed. Concentrating, Stiles could hear the assistant calling all the kids parents, except for Allison’s, he frowned until he remembered that she was already 18, which meant unless she requested it, her parents wouldn’t be informed of any of this. 

Deputy Parker waited with all three boys as all their parents were called, even though, Stiles assumed, his dad had already been informed by Shawna. Shawna was the back up dispatcher, receptionist, assistant, slash anything else she needed to be at the station. This prediction proved correct when the sheriff ambled in not long into their waiting. He sat down across from Stiles and raised his eyebrows, shooting Scott a dubious look, and Jackson a considering one. Marie Whittemore was second and finally Melissa, obviously coming from the middle of shift, got there last. 

As they all shuffled into the office, Allison got up and made her way to Stiles’ side, her eyes were red from crying, but she still had a furious and determined look on her face. He looked down at her wrist, it was red and puffy. He looked back up at the principal, who had a pinched expression on his face. 

“All right, we are all here, now, can someone please explain what is going on?” The sheriff broke the silence, when nobody answered him immediately he honed in on the Principal who was staring now intently at Deputy Graeme and waving a hand in the air like she should explain. Before anyone else could talk though, Allison spoke up. 

“What is going on is that Principal Thomas is refusing to listen to me when I say I want to charge Scott with assault. He insisted that I wait here and that he won’t do anything until my parents are here, well, I’m 18 now, I don’t need my parents here to say I want to file assault charges. Jackson and Stiles are my witnesses. I’ve already given my statement to Deputy Graeme, now I would appreciate it if I would be allowed to leave so I could go to the hospital and have my wrist looked at.” 

When Principal Thomas looked like he was about to speak again, the sheriff gave him a glare. “Miss Argent is correct, her parents do not need to be here. Would you like someone from my office to drive you to the hospital?” Allison nodded, trembling a little. “Ok, then, Luke, please bring Miss Argent to the hospital. Deputy Graeme, please interview each of these boys with their parents. I will have to leave any of the questioning to Deputy Graeme as I obviously,” he gestured to Stiles, “have a conflict of interest.” 

The rest of the time went quickly. Each of the boys gave their statement one by one to Tara with their parents. After they were finished she told Mrs. McCall that she should take Scott home for the day, he would not be arrested as he was a minor and the offense was not serious enough. However, Allison had asked to get a restraining order, so they would need to coordinate with the school on how classes would work. Melissa had grown paler the whole time this had been happening, at the end she nodded woodenly, and towed Scott out. 

Stiles’ dad had to go back on shift when they got out but he said he’d be back at the house by 5pm and Stiles had better be there. He’d been giving a pass for the rest of the day and he was torn between wanting to go to Peter to get the Argent story or go check on Allison. Jackson was also still shadowing him and was now standing with him by the jeep. Shooting the other teen an annoyed look he called Peter. He gave the alpha a quick rundown of the last couple hours and then waited anxiously while Peter digested all that. Which, what the hell, he threw up a frustrated cry up to the Lycaon, what had he done in life to deserve this. 

“I think you should go check on Allison.” Peter’s voice startled him out of the brain spiral he’d gone down, remembering all the wolf deity names he’d discovered before class, “Judging by what happened today, yes, you should tell her about you and me. It sounds like it would be beneficial for her to know the truth, not only would it help cement us as allies but it gives her an explanation for why today happened, that she is not a fool, she simply could not anticipate a near feral wolf.” 

Stiles felt relief rush through him. “Thank you, yes, that’s what I was thinking as well...just thanks, I...there’s just something about her, I think she could be a really good ally.” 

“Of course, Stiles, I trust your instincts, you did well to check in with me as well. Tell Jackson he did well to come warn you. When is your father’s next night shift?” 

“Uh, not until Friday.” He forced down the disappointment when he realized he wouldn’t be able to stay over with Peter and Derek for the rest of the week. It was only Tuesday as well. 

Peter sighed, “Very well, I suppose we shall have to work with your free time after school. Text me his and your schedules so I can plan accordingly please.” 

After the phone call finished, Stiles eyed Jackson warily. “So...what’s up Jax?” 

The teen in question fidgeted and stared at the ground before finally saying, “I’ve been thinking about it, what you said, I...shit, you’re going to make me say it?” 

Stiles gave him the best shit eating grin he could muster. “Yup.” 

“Fine. You’re right. I do want to belong, and I’ll do what I have to in order to get there.” 

Stiles just grinned wider, “Sweet, then come along Jax, off to pick up the warrior queen.” 

Allison was waiting for them outside the hospital. Jackson slid into the back seat as she climbed into the jeep. She gave them both a tired smile. Her wrist was in a brace but not a cast, she had texted that it had been dislocated but not broken. Stiles tapped his steering wheel, feeling nervous all of a sudden. It was easy in theory to talk about telling someone all this stuff, but in real life? It was terrifying. 

“Sooo...how do milkshakes and curly fries sound?” Stiles said, finally getting a plan in his head. 

“Sounds perfect.” Allison gave him another smile in response. 

He drove them out of Beacon Hills down south towards Douglas City. It’s a tinier town then Beacon but has a diner in it that the owner knows him and won’t care or mind that they aren’t in school. It’s a 20 minute drive and it passes in mostly silence except for the radio. Stiles uses the time to try and pull his thoughts together in how he is going to do this. 

He shuffled them in and out of the diner quickly so that with milkshakes and french fries in hand they can go out back to a picnic table behind the diner. The sun is shining and it’s warm for a winter’s day in the mountains so hopefully with jackets on they won’t get too cold. Maybe he’s being paranoid but he doesn’t want to do this in a public setting. 

“So, um, this is all going to sound beyond crazy, please just let me get through it all before you ask any questions ok? You aren’t going to like parts of it but I think you’ve been lied to enough in your life and I don’t want you later to think any part of what I am going to tell you isn’t true. There are also parts I’m still trying to figure out and parts of it that aren’t my story to tell but here we go.” 

And then he tells her everything. He starts from the night Scott got bitten through every detail of what happened to them after, the clues and pieces he put together about the fire and Derek. He tells her about the night Peter bit him and explains about how pack and bonds between pack members work. He also tells her about her family, that they are hunters, how Kate shot Derek and how terrified he’d been that night in the animal clinic. Allison doesn’t interrupt him, she sits there silently and takes it all in, though she slowly hunches in on herself as the story goes on. Jackson also sits silently throughout, though he makes a few startled noises here and there at times where Stiles thinks he hadn’t figured out. 

After he finishes there is a long silence that makes him very anxious. He is tapping the table with his fingernails and doesn’t even realize that his claws have come out until Allison’s small gasp. Freezing he stares at his hands before looking up at her face. 

“Uh, yeah, yup. These are them, claws, my claws, because I’m a werewolf now. Oh my wolf gods, this is such crazy shit...I’m sorry to dump it all on you but I’ve been going crazy not telling anyone and Scott completely freaked on me and is just mad that I’m still going to Peter…” 

Her hand rests over his. “Hey, it’s ok. I...I don’t know how I am but I am so glad you told me. I’m probably going to panic about this in a bit but right now, I’m really glad you told me. And all the stuff with my family, it just makes sense. Like all the pieces are slotting into place. I don’t know how I feel about thinking that they might have set the fire. It’s just...how could they do that?” 

Stiles winced and forced his claws to come back in. “I don’t know, and I don’t know for certain they did it, but I know Peter and Derek are certain they did. I’m sorry, I don’t…” He trailed off helplessly. 

“Yeah.” She gives his hand another squeeze and lets go. 

“Well, shit.” Of course it’s Jackson who breaks this silence. “You know, I’m actually kind of impressed with you right now, Stiles.” Stiles turns to look at Jackson in shock, he’s not sure he has heard any version of his name besides Stilinski coming out of Jackson’s mouth since they were nine years old. Jackson looks at Allison next. “Look, I don’t have much to add, but I do know, it’s a really big deal that…” he side eyes Stiles before saying, “...Peter has agreed for Stiles to tell you this. I, well, I figured it out on my own but then, ha, Peter is terrifying as hell.” 

“Hey, he’s not that bad.” Stiles protests as he munches another curly fry. Jackson gives him a flat look before rolling his eyes and muttering ‘sure’ under his breath. 

“So, what am I supposed to do now? I mean, knowing why Scott freaked out on me doesn’t really change anything, unless you are expecting me to drop the charges?” 

“What? No! No, it doesn’t, Peter explained it is that new wolves or wolves that are omega and without pack bonds, just have their inhibitions taken away. It’s like getting drunk or on drugs. You are still responsible for your actions, everything is just magnified and made more intense. But...I think there is an added element of desperation with not having a pack, that if Scott had a stable pack and hadn’t rejected Peter as alpha he wouldn’t have become so fixated on you. Fuck, I know it’s weird as hell, honestly, I’m still having random panic attacks about all this. You should have seen me yesterday, just, well, it’s not your fault is what I’m trying to say.” 

“Thanks, and it’s not your fault either. I can see you blaming yourself for bringing Scott to the woods, but it’s not your fault, ok?” 

Stiles ran slightly shaky hands over his face and nodded. “Thank you, you are a really good friend.” 

She gave him a smile then turned to Jackson, “So, why are you here and involved in all this?” 

Jackson shifted awkwardly before meeting Stiles’ gaze then flushed. “I want to be one too.” 

Allison looked startled, “You mean a werewolf? You want to be a werewolf?” 

“Yes.” 

“But...why?” 

Stiles let out a snort at that, Jackson gave him a dark look while Allison just looked more confused. He waved off her look and said, “Sorry, just, Peter asked him that two days ago and he was all like, me macho jock, me super important bahaha, and then Peter turned him down hard, but then you are asking all sweet and confused, and just, well sorry, I shouldn’t find it funny…” 

Jackson huffed and then cracked a hesitant grin as well. “No, it is funny. I spent all yesterday thinking, and you know how much I hate that stupid think about your life shit, but, Allison, look, I’ve always wanted to be the best at everything and being a werewolf is the best, but also,” He looked at Stiles again, a vulnerable look on his face that Stiles had not seen in a very long time, “this is also a chance for belonging somewhere, and it’s not something that you’ll lose on a whim.” 

Allison rubbed her forehead, “Ok, I think I need you to talk me through what it means to be part of a pack more.” 

Stiles lit up and pulled out a notebook. He’d been frantically writing down everything Peter, Derek or Jennifer had told him in the last few days and before that all his observations of Scott and Derek. Now he had his own observations to record as well. Jackson groaned when he saw it, knowing the intensity that was about to be unleashed but Stiles ignored him. Some people just had no appreciation of good research. 

The three of them spent another two hours at the picnic table, going through his notes and Stiles answering both the other teens’ questions. Jackson even went back inside the diner and got them more food without being asked. Stiles made a little mark in one corner of the notebook to remind himself to up Jackson’s xp level when he got home. In lit class that morning he had graphed out an experience points system so he could be fair (ish, he was not going to lie and say that this point system might not change a bit depending on the whims of his mood) in deciding if Jackson ever qualified to be a werewolf. 

In the end, they had to cut the conversation short and head back towards Beacon Hills. Stiles did need to get home by six and Allison didn’t want to freak her parents out too much. He dropped Jackson off at the school first and then made his way to the Argent house. Pulling up next to the driveway, he put the jeep in park and said, “So, uh, if you do confront your family again about the hunting thing, I’d appreciate if you could try and keep me out of it...I just --” 

“Oh! Of course, Stiles, I won’t tell them, I promise. I mean, I just can’t believe they are killers and I’m freaking out a bit about all of this, but I won’t tell them about you.” 

Stiles found himself relaxing as tension he didn’t realize he was holding, let him in a rush. “Thanks, really, you’re the best.” She leaned over and gave him a quick hug before going back inside. Stiles watched her enter the house before turning around to go home himself. He had to fight the urge the whole way back not to go straight to Peter. 

Thankfully, when he got home he had time to make dinner for his dad. WHen his dad got home, he looked as exhausted as Stiles felt. He’d had to field an angry visit by Chris Argent who’d found out from Marie Whittemore about what had happened that day at school. Argent had been livid no one had contacted him and even more livid when no one could tell him where Allison was. Stiles had winced at that and then snuck out a text to her asking if she was ok and letting her know if she needed to get away, his place was available. 

After dinner, he focused on homework and tried desperately not to get distracted by everything else going on. Because of this, homework took longer than expected and when he finally crawled into bed, it was almost midnight. Trying to use Peter’s exercises to relax himself, he kept getting distracted by all the noises he could hear. He sat bolt upright when a familiar heartbeat and scent filtered in through the open window. Quickly, he pulled out the window screen and looked down to see Peter, pulling himself up to the second floor. Stiles flushed as their faces almost came into contact, he backed up so Peter could ease his way into the room. 

“Peter,” he whispered, “my dad’s here.” 

Peter rolled his eyes, “Asleep, like you should be.” 

Stiles crowded into the alpha’s space and wrapped himself around the wolf, humming contendently as he took deep breaths of Peter’s scent. Peter rumbled deep in his chest in approval. The alpha maneuvered him over and into the bed, curling himself around Stiles while doing so. The alpha’s hand gently rubbed over his stomach and Stiles could feel feather light kisses working their way across his neck and shoulders. He shuddered as he felt his body go limp and pliant, Peter pressed his face into Stiles’ neck and let out another rumble, he felt himself start to drift off, feeling safe and warm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am finding that I just can’t help myself but make Stiles and Allison friends. I have a few other stories I’m working on and in every one even if I start out not meaning to, they end up friends and kicking ass together. This also stems very much from my annoyance at the show for never really giving Allison agency. It’s the kind of passive misogyny that really irritates me. You can’t just give a woman fighting skills and a weapon then say she’s a strong character. A true strong character, regardless of gender, has agency and choice. They make mistakes and grow from them. But Allison was basically the blank slate that they used to prop up the male lead and would literally change her personality episode by episode depending on what they wanted from Scott. Drove me nuts. So this is my attempt to fix that.


	6. I meant what I said

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for discussion of Kate Argent and Derek. It should be pretty obvious when you get to that point in the conversation. Also warning for Stiles talking about his mothers death and giving some details there.

When he woke up the next morning, Peter was already gone, but Stiles could smell the alpha’s scent all over the room. He called Peter on the way to school and gave him a rundown of the whole conversation with Allison and Jackson. Peter let him know that he had Derek keeping a subtle eye on Scott now to make sure the beta wasn’t going to do something more. He also said he had contacted some people that might be able to step in to force a change with Scott. He somehow managed to pull up to the school at the same time Allison was being dropped off. He assumed she’d already have gone into the building by the time he walked up so he was surprised to see her and Chris Argent still standing by the entrance as he came up. He was about to try and edge past them when Argent moved to block his path. Behind her dad, Allison was glaring at the back of his head. 

“Oh, hey, uh, hi Mr. Argent.” 

“Stiles, it is Stiles, right? Sheriff Stilinski’s son.” 

“Yup, that’s me, Stiles, Stiles...Stilinski…” He trailed off awkwardly, his heart was beating frantically in his chest and he shot Allison a look he hoped conveyed all his questions at once. By geri and freki, he hoped that she had not broken down under pressure and told her family he was a werewolf. Chris Argent smiled (what the fuck) at him and offered a hand. Cautiously, Stiles took it, Argent firmly shook it and then let go. 

“Stiles, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for stepping in yesterday. I know that it must have been difficult for you to confront your best friend like that, so I appreciate your defense of my daughter.” Argent’s heartbeat was steady, and his scent stayed even, holy wolf gods, was the hunter actually grateful to Stiles??

“Well, er, it was the right thing to do. And you know, Allison didn’t really need saving, she’d already taken him out by the time I got involved, you have one extremely terrifying daughter, Mr. Argent.” When no reply was forthcoming, Stiles started to edge around the man. “But you are very welcome, and thank you for thanking me, but I should get to class now, don’t want to be late --” 

Argent’s hand on his shoulder made him freeze up again. The man smiled widely, squeezed and said, “I was actually hoping you’d be free to come to dinner tonight with my family. We would love to get to know you better and to more properly thank you.” 

Danger, will robinson, danger, Stiles’ mind had red klaxons going off in it as he took in Chris Argent’s sharp gaze. He widened his own eyes and brought up his hand to rub awkwardly at his neck. He knew when he did this, he looked younger and more innocent. “Thank you for the offer sir, but I’d have to check with my dad first. He’s on day shift this week, so we usually have dinner together.” Argent’s widening smile and next words made him realize this whole thing had been one giant trap. 

“I understand completely, prioritizing one's family is always important. Why don’t both you and your father come over? We are so new in town, any connections are always nice to make.” 

Shit, well, trap closed, Stiles thought, even as he frantically ran through possible ways to still get out of this. At least with dad there, Argent probably wouldn't shoot him, right? He kept himself unsure, and shifted his feet and looked down. “Wow, that’s really nice of you, sir, I’m not sure if this is enough notice for --” 

“Nonsense, I will give him a call to arrange the details. Oh, and I hate to ask another favor of you, but would you be willing to drive Allison home after school today? I have some important business this afternoon and both Kate and Victoria will be out at the time.” Wow, this dude played for keeps, Stiles was reluctantly impressed. He opened his mouth to respond but Argent just barreled on, “Excellent, thank you again, Stiles. Allison, remember what we talked about. See you both about twenty minutes after school ends.” 

Stiles could do nothing but gape at the hunter’s retreating back. He switched his wide eyed gaze to Allison and said, “Dude...when I grow up I want to be your dad, that was like, epic, he totally played me, me! Shit, nobody plays me like that. Wow.” 

Allison stared at him incredulously, “Wait, you’re not mad about this?” 

“Oh yeah, I’m totally mad, but also, it was so brilliant I have got to respect it.” 

Allison giggled, slightly hysterically, “Ok...wow, um, so yes, I tried to talk him out of it but he’s got all these crazy ideas in his head about me being in danger and needing to make sure none of my friends are a danger to me. He kept asking all these insane questions last night.” 

Stiles frowned, “What kind of questions?” 

“Oh like, have any of them mentioned being attacked by dogs lately, or have you noticed anyone being super sensitive to loud noises…” She rolled her eyes. 

“Uh, Allison, he’s trying to figure out which one of your classmates is the other werewolf.” 

Allison’s eyes widened and she slapped a hand over her eyes. “Oh my gosh, I’m such an idiot...well, I didn’t tell him anything because I haven’t noticed any of that, but, Stiles, I’m so sorry I didn’t realize. Oh god, what if I accidentally give something away because I know this stuff now?” 

Impulsively, Stiles hugged her. “Hey, no, it’s ok, you aren’t going to give anything away, you know how I know that? Because you are a good friend and a great person. But come on, we do need to get to class.” 

When the two of them walked into the school Stiles felt a bit like every eye was upon them. Allison hadn’t seemed to notice and as she quickly moved to her locker then English. But as Stiles concentrated on the whispers, he started to get concerned, it sounded like there was a whole lot of gossip going on with what happened yesterday between Scott and Allison. He was about to warn Allison when Lydia intercepted them. 

“Well, I see you have no shame.” The redhead said, her tone sweetly acidic. Allison gave her a confused frown and then glanced at Stiles. 

“Sorry, what?” Allison responded. 

Lydia raised one eyebrow and examined her nails, “I mean, Allison dear, you have some nerve to waltz back into class the day after you got the lacrosse captain expelled.” 

“I…” Allison looked around the room and shrunk into herself as half the class was glaring at her. 

“Hey, Scott attacked Allison. Both Jackson and I saw it.” Stiles said, trying to deflect the attention. 

Lydia snorted, delicately. “Sure, both of Allison’s newest conquests backing her up, totally believable.” She eyed Stiles up and down then rolled her eyes, “What she’d have to do to get you to come panting along after he? I bet it wasn’t much. It just wasn’t enough for you, was it, Allison, had to get your petty revenge on Scott for seeing the true psycho you are and dumping you, wrapped Jackson up in your little games.” 

“That isn’t how it happened you know it.” Allison said, tears were falling down her cheeks now. “I broke up with Scott, I never did anything with Jackson, and Stiles has just been nice. Why are you saying these things?” 

Lydia rolled her eyes again. “Oh, I bet Stiles has been very nice, he can do that when he wants to. You two deserve each other. Stiles, always pathetically going after those in power, keeping at least one person isolated from all others. Well, going after the team is one step too far, we won’t stand for it.” 

Stiles couldn’t help himself, he laughed. Everyone, even the students who had kept their eyes averted, looked up. “Holy shit, Lydia, this is, wow, just wow. Who the fuck is the ‘we’ here? You and the ten students in your class and the handful of seniors you rule over? The lacrosse team? Well, I hate to be the one to teach you how math works, but there are a lot more students here than the ones who you consider worth your time, and also, Jackson is still captain of the lacrosse team. Petty and bitter really doesn’t suit you Lydia. Jackson dumped you, get over it, move on. I sure as hell don’t give a shit for your opinion. Scott crossed a line yesterday and it broke my heart because I love him like my brother, but he very nearly broke Allison’s wrist.” 

Lydia’s eyes blazed but Stiles shoved by her, tugging Allison gently behind him to deposit her in one of the first row seats. He flopped down next to her and sprawled lazily in his seat. Pointedly ignoring all the whispers, he pulled out his books just as the teacher made her way into the room. He could hear the pounding of Lydia’s heart and could taste the rage pouring off of her, but he steadfastly ignored it. 

Jackson confirmed after class that Scott had been expelled and Danny assured them that the lacrosse team didn’t give two shits about Scott after seeing the brace on Allison’s wrist. The four of them stuck together for the rest of the day. Lydia was in a high dungeon and most of the school seemed split on whether to believe her or Allison. It didn’t help anything that Jackson was sitting with them and Danny. By lunchtime Stiles was nursing a headache from the constant whispering and questions he was picking up. Allison had pulled into herself all day, getting quieter and more miserable. 

During lunch, Stiles snuck outside, leaving Allison with Jackson and Danny and called Peter to tell him about the Argent dinner. It ended up taking almost the entire lunch period to get Peter to calm down enough to talk reasonably about it. He kept reminding the alpha that his dad was going to be there, Argent couldn’t do anything while his dad was there. Peter finally, grumpily agreed but demanded that Stiles text him every 20 minutes with an update. Feeling even more exhausted, he called his dad next to see if Argent had talked to him yet. Argent had, and the Sheriff was incredibly confused and bemused by the invite. He had, like Stiles, been impressed with how Argent was able to manipulate him into getting what he wanted. 

The rest of the afternoon seemed to drag on forever. He could hear Lydia’s minions flitting around the school, gossiping about Allison, Jackson and Stiles. Danny at least, was left alone. On top of this, he had gotten a barrage of texts from Derek, they got increasingly acerbic in nature as Derek told him in great detail how idiotic it was to trust any Argent at all. Fed up, Stiles shot off a text just before school ended, telling Derek to fuck off and grow a spine. No more texts came in and Stiles was left feeling horrible. He miserably thought about calling Peter again, but didn’t want to appear pathetic and unable to handle himself. 

By the time he and Allison made their way to the Argent house after school, they were both in a terrible sulk. After a brief debate, he followed Allison into the house and they settled at the kitchen table to try and get homework done. That lasted all of five minutes before Allison started crying, which made Stiles cry and then they were hugging, after they had calmed down a bit, Stiles decided enough was enough. 

“Ok, that’s it, Ally, we are making cookies.” He beelined into the kitchen and started to whirlwind his way through the cupboards, all while muttering to himself. “Now if I was chocolate, where would I be hiding, hmmm...weell, this sort of works, not the best chocolate in the world, but wait, my new super sniffer smells something even more delicious! Aha!” Feeling triumphant, he pulled out a bag of gourmet chocolate that had been stuffed in a shelf on the top of the fridge. Allison giggled from where she was watching him tornado through it all. 

Feeling proud of himself, he managed to keep her giggling as he ‘used’ his nose to sniff out all the other baking ingredients and even pretended to use it to find the pots and pans. He threw together the ingredients by memory and soon had the first batch in the oven. In his frenzy through the kitchen he’d taken note of the wrapped lasagna in the fridge with taped instructions to it on when to put it in the oven for dinner. He could smell what he assumed was a women’s perfume attached to it. Deciding that lasagna would not be complete without baked garlic somethings, he then rooted around some more, found garlic cloves and started the process to make quick garlic biscuits. 

While doing all this he dutifully texted Peter every twenty minutes and sent a rambling, emotional apology to Derek. He didn’t hear anything back from Derek which served to only increase his manic baking. There was a tight feeling in his gut and somehow he just knew he’d managed to genuinely upset the other beta and that he’d be on edge until he was able to fix it. 

He had the second batch of cookies out and the first batch of biscuits in when Chris Argent finally got home. The hunter looked a little flustered when he walked in, though he relaxed perceptibly once he saw Stiles and Allison were just in the kitchen. He did still look around suspiciously and gave Stiles half glare smile thing (Stiles was positive the man had to have practiced that in the mirror, just as he was sure Peter practiced smirking in the mirror, Derek though, he was sure came by the glower naturally and no practice was needed). 

“Hey Mr. Argent, I hope you don’t mind but we had kind of a shi-tressful day and needed chocolate cookies. Here, try one!” Stiles said, practically shoving a cookie into the hunter’s mouth. Slowly chewing, Argent leaned against the countertop and gave Stiles a bland but questioning look. Well, shit, Stiles was terrible with silence, he tended to babble and babbling in front of a guy who had specific poisonous bullets to kill you was not a good idea. The silence stretched on and he had to resist the urge to open the oven to check the biscuits. 

“Sooo...how was your, uh, work thing?” Dammit, he wasn’t supposed to break first. 

Argent just raised an eyebrow, “You mean the ‘thing’ that pays for my house and lifestyle and supports my family, that work thing?” 

Abort, abort, abort, pull escape hatch now. Stiles internally cursed his incredibly unhelpful mind, why, oh why couldn’t it come up with something useful other than just running away. Wolves were supposed to be predators! Externally, he put his most sheepish smile on, “Yes, sorry, I guess I’m just nervous, my dad and I, well, we don’t often get invited out anywhere. We haven’t since my mom died.” Argent’s face now went through several complicated micro expressions. Wince, pity, confusion, awkward. Bingo, good job self, Stiles mentally patted himself on the back and hoped he didn’t come to regret bringing out that trump card too early. 

“Understandable,” the hunter finally settled on, “I hope this proves to be an enjoyable experience for the both of you.” 

“I’m sure it will be. I hope it wasn’t too forward of me, but I tend to stress bake and I saw the lasagna in the fridge so I made garlic biscuits to go with it.” 

A new woman's voice sounded out behind them before Argent could respond, “Those sound amazing, Allison, why haven’t you had this adorable friend over before? Hey, sweetie, I’m Allison’s Aunt Kate.” Stiles startled sideways and barely managed to save the tray of cookies he had knocked into at the new voice. Wow, yeah, he really needed to work on this werewolf awareness thing because he had no idea she was approaching. 

“Ah, hi, uh, sorry.” He awkwardly waved at her. She gave him a sharp, predator’s grin. It scared him more than Peter or Derek ever had. Everything about her screamed danger. 

“Ahh, aren’t you just adorable. Look at you, bringing the Argent family dinner up a level, biscuits and cookies.” Kate said, sauntering over to the counter, winking at Stiles, she picked up a cookie and proceeded to make moaning noises as she ate it. Stiles flushed and looked away, her heart through all this remained rock steady, and her scent held only contempt. He gripped the counter, she was mocking him, why? Thankfully, before he had to come up with a response to this, the timer dinged and he had to pull out the biscuits. Setting them aside to cool he switched the oven temp for what the lasagna would need to be at. 

After this was done he slid back over to where Allison was giving her dad a brief summary of the day. Argent was obviously not pleased at the brevity and the tension was building. Allison was also giving Kate small, confused looks, her Aunt had followed Stiles over and was crowding his space, making him incredibly uncomfortable. He decided to interrupt Allison and her dad and ask if there was somewhere they could work on homework. Allison grabbed onto the suggestion like a lifeline and for the next hour, they holed up in the living room with their books. 

The Sheriff arrived just before the lasagna was pulled out of the oven and soon they were all seated around the table. Stiles had not thought the evening could get anymore awkward, but Kate Argent flirting with his dad, while also somehow still flirting with Stiles, was definitely going up there as one of the most traumatic experiences ever. His dad was looking vaguely uncomfortable and it was obvious Chris Argent was giving his sister the evil eye while Victoria was giving an FBI worthy interrogation of Allison’s day at school. Stiles just focused on his food and as subtly as possible texting Peter that he was still alive and not in an Argent torture basement. 

He tuned back into the conversation when he caught his dad using the casual question asking tone. That tone never failed to make Stiles sit up and take notice, it was the Sheriff’s tone he used when he suspected something was off but didn’t have the evidence to go for an official interrogation. 

“The way you talk about the area makes me believe you had to have spent time here before, unless you are just that fast of a study.” His dad said, giving Kate a warm smile. Ugg, was he attempting to flirt? 

Kate laughed and leaned over the table. “How perceptive of you, Sheriff, while I do consider myself a ‘quick’ study, I have spent time here before. It was back when I was still trying to use my teaching degree, I substitute taught at the high school.” 

“Please, call me Noah, whenever I’m called Sheriff when I’m off duty makes me feel like I’m about to get another hour long complaint from one of the Ladies of the Beautification of Beacon hills society.” 

“Of course, Noah,” Kate purred this and leaned even closer to his dad. He had to look away so it wouldn’t puke, as he did he met Chris Argent’s eyes, the man looked just as revolted as Stiles did. Huh, who knew he would have a bonding moment with his mortal enemy because said mortal enemy’s sister was a creep. 

His dad just smiled at her, the man almost looked besotted, but Stiles could see the intelligent gleam in his dad’s eyes. He ducked to hide a grin, if only he could be as good at hiding himself behind blandess and smiles. His only recourse for distraction was babbling and clumsiness. Both things tended to just annoy people instead of winning them over. It looked like Kate was about to continue when Chris knocked over his glass of water and it went all over Kate. In the ensuing shuffle, he managed to catch the hunter’s gaze again and offered him a thumbs up. Chris didn’t seem to appreciate the appreciation as the man just glared back at him. Some people have no pride in their work, Stiles thought with a huff. 

While Kate was gone, Chris managed to steer the conversation to the animal attacks and of course landed on Derek Hale. Noah sighed deeply, “Look, Argent, if the whole reason you asked me here tonight is to continue to beat that horse to death, I will walk out right now. After our only eye witness withdrew his statement about seeing Hale at the highschool, we have no evidence to go after him. On top of that, Peter Hale’s miraculous recovery brought with it lawyers, we are damn lucky the city isn’t being sued, so please, just drop it.” 

A clatter brought everyone attention to Victoria, she had dropped her fork on the floor. Noah gave her a confused look but before he could say anything else, Chris said, “I’m sorry, did you say Peter Hale is up and talking?” 

“I’m surprised you missed the news, and that you have managed to avoid the gossip system that is Beacon’s life blood, but yes, not only talking but walking and off being a recluse somewhere in the forest. No one has actually seen the man since he disappeared out of the hospital Friday night.” Noah finished this last part with a grimace and an eye roll. Stiles and Allison both studiously stared at their mostly empty plates, Stiles’ pulse was racing. He hadn’t really thought about the Argents finding out about Peter being awake, shit, shit, this could be bad. He needed to get out so he could call Peter. 

Unfortunately, he was stuck there for over another hour while Argent tried to continue to pump for information on the Hales, his dad kept trying to get Kate to talk about what she had been doing when she had been here six years ago, and Victoria was both trying to get Kate to stop talking and support her husband. It was the most excruciating hour and a half of Stiles’ life. His dad led Chris on a merry chase, the Sheriff was well used to giving away just the right amount of information and not anything critical. If he hadn’t been panicking about Peter and Derek, he would have found the whole thing to be hilarious. 

When they finally got done and were walking to their cars, he was just about to try and come up with an excuse as to why he would be gone overnight when his dad gave him the perfect one. 

“Son, I’m sorry, but I need to head back into the station and work on some case notes. It’s going to be late so I’m just going to sleep there before my day shift.” 

“Ok, dad, no worries, just promise me that Kate Argent isn’t going to meet you there.” 

His dad chuckled and pulled him into a half hug, “That is one of the easiest promises I have ever made you. Now go on now, head out.” 

He made sure to take non patrolled routes out to Peter’s area, he was on edge the whole time and kept stopping and listening to make sure no one was following him. By the time he actually got to Peter’s he felt like he was about to burst apart at the seams. He must have been bleeding through the bond because the alpha was waiting for him on the porch. He threw himself out of the jeep and burrowed into Peter. 

“Stiles, sweetheart, what’s wrong? Is it the Argents? Stiles, I need you to talk to me.” 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, um, ok, I’m ok.” He pulled back slightly and focused on trying to control his breathing. Peter kept a steady hand on the back of his neck. Feeling calmer now, Stiles gave Peter a rundown of the whole night, including how creeped out he had been by Kate. Peter’s face darkened as Stiles talked. When he had finished, Peter reeled him in and kissed him hard. Stiles was pretty sure his brain stopped working at that moment, all his nerves felt on edge for completely different reasons than earlier. He attempted to kiss back as Peter moved him around until his back hit the wall of the house. The alpha growled and pressed himself more firmly against Stiles which made him moan and throb with arousal. 

“Peter.” Derek’s voice jolted him back into the present and he felt himself flush. Peter sighed and turned a glare towards his nephew. 

“What.” The alpha said, flatly. 

Derek was leaning up against the door frame, a completely blank look on his face. “You know what. Also, this isn’t the time, we...I...need to tell him the whole story. He needs to know.” 

Peter sighed, leaning down and gave Stiles one last kiss before walking into the house. Derek’s general presence combined with the guilt and grief Stiles could now feel rolling off him, caused all the arousal Stiles had been feeling to go away in a rush. 

“Derek…” He said, tentatively moving towards the beta. Derek flinched away. 

“Don’t.” Derek said, his voice cracking and raspy. He met Sitles’ eyes and then flinched away again. Stiles froze, he had never seen Derek like this. He whined, all he wanted to do was comfort his pack member. Derek shuddered and then disappeared after Peter into the house. 

Dreading what he was about to hear, Stiles made his way into the kitchen. Jennifer was there already, stirring something on the stove, a sniff told Stiles it was hot chocolate. They all sat down, Derek was red eyed and refused to look up from the floor. 

“Derek,” Peter said gently, “do you want me to start?” 

Derek shook his head. “No, it should be me, he...he should hear it from me.” The rest of the story came in halts and stutters, Stiles felt more and more sick as he heard it. About how Kate had been the substitute english teacher, how she had been the sympathetic ear when all his other friends were ready to forget the death of his first girlfriend, how Derek had just wanted to feel something, anything, how the rest of the family avoided him for the blue eyes, but Kate had been there and had been kind. Kate had slowly isolated him from even the family members who didn’t avoid him, then one day she’d asked for a sweatshirt of his when it was cold out, and three days later, his family’s home was burnt to the ground with everyone inside except for him and Laura. 

“Oh Derek…” Stiles got up, Derek flinched, Stiles slowly knelt down, hovering near but not touching the other wolf. Swallowing, he held out a hand. “Derek, I know you might not ever believe this, but, you didn’t kill your family. Kate did. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else she used. That’s what she is, an abuser and a master manipulator. You did not set the matches, you did not ring the house in mountain ash, you did not give her your sweatshirt with the intention of it hurting your family. She is so good at this --” 

“You knew.” Derek cut him off. “I heard you, you knew instantly she was bad.” 

Stiles growled while reaching out and pinching Derek’s leg. “Hey, not the same thing, a. My dad has been teaching me to spot people like her since I was in diapers, b. Scott already told me she was creepy, c. she fucking shot you with a poison bullet for no fucking reason. Dude, there was nothing she could have been like for me to not dislike her after that. You are my pack, ok? Anyone who shoots my pack with magic bullets is totally going on my enemy list.” 

Derek whimpered and then fell forward into Stiles’ arms. He reached back and clung to his pack member. Stiles managed to push himself up so he could stand and hold Derek tight against him. After a minute and Derek had calmed down a little, Stiles started talking again. 

“My mom died when I was nine, it was a slow death too, she had frontotemporal dementia. The thing is, it can kill someone but most people don’t die from it...if they die, well, it causes a lot of things. My mom forgot stuff, she forgot me, she thought...she thought I was a monster sometimes and sometimes she didn’t see me at all. She lost a lot of function in her body, and was pretty much stuck in the hospital when...she had an episode, she freaked out because she didn’t know who I was and tried to leave the room, I tried to stop her but she got out. I went after her and then she panicked, screamed I was going to kill her. She went into the stairwell, and...I tried to grab her, but I wasn’t strong enough.” 

He had to stop talking and take his own shuddering breath. Derek’s grip around his middle tightened and the beta let out a low whine. Blinking tears out of his eyes, Stiles went on, “Sometimes, I still have moments, reliving that day, just thinking, if I hadn’t chased her, if I hadn’t tried to stop her...she might not have died. I know it’s not the same, gods, I know it’s not the same...but, I just, you’re not alone, ok? You’re not alone.” 

Peter had moved around the table while Stiles was talking and pulled both of them into his arms. “You both are not to blame. Derek, you know I don’t blame you. We could go over what ifs for all eternity, if I hadn’t felt so much guilt for Page and believed you blamed me, maybe I would have noticed, if Talia hadn’t let herself get so distracted by diplomacy…” 

Eventually they all sat down again and Jennifer shoved mugs of hot cocoa in their hands. The warmth was flowing steadily in the pack bonds, Stiles felt completely drained from the day but he also felt good. He leaned against Derek, who huffed but leaned back. Derek’s grief was still present but not as overwhelming as before. He felt like he was about to drift off when he jolted up, wide awake. 

“Oh shit! He knows, oh shit, go dad, holy shit.” He scrambled up and pulled his phone out, but stopped himself before calling, realizing suddenly he would have no way to justify knowing or asking about this. 

“Care to share with the class?” Peter drawled out, looking at him with a vague sort of amusement. 

“My dad, he knows, I mean, he can’t know the whole thing, but he’s gotta know about Kate. Tonight, he was asking her about when she’d been here before and what she had been doing. She told him she’d been a teacher, he must have found something, something that made him suspect her.” 

“Stiles.” Peter reached out and grabbed his arm. “Sit, explain.” 

“Uh, ok, so my dad’s been investigating the fire, I’ve been sneaking looks at the case files this whole time but haven’t been able to recently because I've been distracted and he stopped bringing them home. Look, I know him, and I know he was trying to dig for info on Kate, I just didn’t know why until now.” 

“I understand that part, what I do not understand is why you are so excited about this. Your father knowing Kate set the fire or not, does not change anything.” 

Stiles stared at him blankly, “Yes it does. How can you not see that? It changes everything! If my dad can prove she set the fire, then she goes to jail. If she goes to jail then you don’t have to kill her, and if you don’t have to kill her then we don’t have to risk someone finding out you killed her and you becoming a wanted man. Then you wouldn’t ever have to leave m-- the town.” 

Peter’s face was completely unreadable as he looked at Stiles. “Do you really think Kate going to jail makes up for the deaths of our entire family?” 

“Of course not. No. But, does anything make up for it? Will it bring them back if she’s dead? No, it won’t. It will only put yourself and your pack at risk if you kill her. This way, shit, this way it’s legal and we can all be safe.” 

Peter’s gaze was hardening. “It’s not just about that, it’s about proving, as alpha, that I protect my pack. If I let that bitch go to jail.” he spat out the word like it was poison. “Then I look weak, other hunters will believe I’m weak and come here to come after us. No. She dies.” 

Stiles felt himself snarl. “Hell no, you don’t get to just put us all at risk like that. What happens if she kills you? What happens when Chris Argent brings in other hunters to get revenge, you think they will stop at you? Or what do you think happens to Derek and me if you die? You don’t get to--” 

Peter rose up and slammed his hand on the table, eyes bright red. Stiles felt his own eyes blaze in return and though he felt the instinct slam into him to submit, he refused to back down. Furious, they both stood there glaring at each other. Stiles wasn’t sure how long they would have stayed there but Jennifer laughed and effectively broke the moment. Startled, they both turned to look at her. 

She shook her head and leaned back in her chair. “You know, I thought you were crazy when I saw you giving a mate turn bite to a teenager. I thought, here it is, everything I’ve worked towards, going to break into pieces because I’ve tied myself to a crazy alpha. But even in that headspace, your instincts brought you the right person.” She paused, smirking up at Peter. “You know he’s right, your pride just won’t let you listen. And Stiles, he’s right too. Our world is not the same world as the one you grew up in, but, alpha, you know it’s not all black and white either. Yes, you can’t appear weak. But using your pack member’s connections and resources doesn’t make you weak, it makes you smart.” 

Peter scowled at her, his fists were clenched. He turned the glare back to Stiles who refused to back down. Stiles was trembling now, he hated this, hated how a warm pack moment had turned into this anger, but he couldn’t back down, he needed to show Peter that he wasn’t just a blind follower. Stiles knew that Jennifer had a point, he didn’t know this world, but the fear of losing Peter and Derek was threatening to choke him. 

“Please, Peter...she’s right, I don’t understand this all yet, but I need you to teach me, not just throw orders out and dismiss whatever I say.” He stopped talking when his voice cracked, he looked away from Peter, a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. He opened his mouth to keep talking then closed it. What was the point? He started to move away from the table and towards the door when a low distressed noise stopped him. He turned back to see Derek looking at him, the other beta’s face was open in a way that Stiles hadn’t seen before, and he was looking at Stiles with hurt and confusion. Shit. He paused, feeling torn and raw. 

“Stiles…” Peter said roughly. Stiles looked over at the alpha, Peter had leaned forward to grip the chair, he was also looking at Derek, then back at Stiles. “I’m sorry, you are right, so is Jennifer, so I am I, but please don’t walk out now.” He held out a hand and stumbling slightly Stiles moved to take it. Peter then tugged him in to scent him thoroughly. Stiles let himself sag against Peter and clung tight. 

Peter pulled back and cupped his jaw in a hand. “We should discuss this more in the morning, when we all are not as emotional. Come to bed sweetheart, you as well Derek, I think we all need the comfort of being together tonight.” 

Soon, Peter had gotten the three of them curled up together in his bed with Stiles somehow ending up in the middle. Exhausted, Stiles curled up into Peter, with Derek pressed up against his back. Peter’s fingers massaged through his neck and hair until he finally was able to release the tension and fall asleep. 

He was woken up the next morning by the absence of warmth. Sitting up, he stretched, reaching out with his senses, he found the heartbeats of his pack in the kitchen again. While he wanted nothing more than to curl back up in bed and ignore the world for the day, he made himself get up and pad his way to his pack. When he arrived, they were all there except for Jennifer. Deek was scowling into a cup of coffee and Peter looked exhausted. Stiles hesitantly walked over, he quickly ran a hand over Derek’s shoulder before he could talk himself out of it. The beta gave him a half hearted glare but also turned his head to nuzzle Sitles’ hand. Peter stopped him on the way to the coffee pot to wrap around him, squeezing him tightly. 

“You are an impertinent brat, but I do believe I need that in my life.” Peter said, practically purring the words in his ear. Stiles pulled back and stared at Peter, the alpha gave him a small smirk. “We are going to try it your way, I’m going to go with Derek down to the police station to give a similar statement to what he told you last night. But Stiles, if this doesn’t work, we _are_ doing it my way.” 

Stiles gulped and nodded. “I know, and I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have sprung all that on you both last night, right after that conversation. And I didn’t take the time to think about how hard this would be on Derek. You don’t have to do it, for me, I don’t want to force Derek to have to go on record like this.” 

Peter’s expression softened. “I know, pet, but he came to me this morning and said he wanted to do it. We all have some work to do on communicating, but we’ll get there.” 

Stiles looked back at Derek, “Are you sure, Derek? Please don’t just do this because I was being a stubborn ass last night.” 

Derek gave him the angry eyebrows and growled out. “Don’t flatter yourself on how much you affect me. I should have done this earlier, it’s the right move for the pack.” 

Stiles felt another wave of relief wash through him. Grinning, he said, “And don’t worry, alpha, I already have a few ideas how to make her disappear if charges don’t stick. I’m never going to let you go to jail for protecting your pack.” 

The light flared in Peter’s eyes and he gave a rumbling growl of approval before pushing into Stiles space and kissing him thoroughly, pulling back after Stiles was breathless and panting, he smirked again. “Oh darling, you are just perfect for me.” He turned Stiles around and shoved him towards the coffee, giving a slight slap to his ass at the same time. Blushing furiously, Stiles squeaked and started hunting for food. 

He had to rush though, if he wanted to get to school on time, so he wasn’t able to get any more kisses. Just as he was about to go out the door, Derek gave him a fast, hard hug and breathed in his ear. Apparently, this ear breathing thing was going to be their thing, Stiles was, weirdly, ok with that. With a last promise from Peter to keep him updated, he drove off to school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter and the epilogue to go! I have started brainstorming and writing a bit for a sequel as well, I'm excited for what I get to do with Lydia for it. :) Going to try and do what the writers should have done with her banshee powers of awesome.


	7. I mean to end this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to say thank you all so much for all the wonderful comments and kudos and bookmarks! You have truly helped motivate me to write faster.

Stiles felt jittery and nervous in school. It didn’t help that Allison was emotionally exhausted as well, she shared that after the Stilinskis had left, Kate and her dad got into another epic fight. It ended with her dad giving her another lecture about safety and Kate had followed her into her room and kept dropping all sorts of hints about the family secrets and how she was a big girl now. Stiles had already decided he couldn’t share Derek’s story yet, but he did tell her he had found out why the Hales believed her family had been responsible for the fire and it was very damning. Allison was quiet for the rest of the day and Stiles didn’t push her. 

Peter texted him at 9 to say they made it to the station and then again around noon to tell him they had finished up. Halfway through the morning Stiles had suddenly realized he didn’t know how Peter was going to explain away the lack of scarring on his face, so after the second text he asked the alpha. Peter’s response was a picture of him, looking exactly the same as he had in the hospital. 

_what the fuck? how?_

_it’s amazing what a little magic can do. Don’t worry pet, it’s just an illusion._

Rolling his eyes at the alpha, he grumpily tried to focus back on school. He texted Derek some random gifs and memes about wolves but didn’t get a response. Peter also went silent for the rest of the afternoon. Somehow he made it through the day, Allison was getting picked up immediately by her dad, so they didn’t have time to talk anymore. He told her to call him if she needed to, and she gave him a tired smile. His dad wasn’t home when he got there and he got a text an hour later saying the sheriff was unlikely to be home at all that night. He knew this must be to do with the case so he tried calling Peter, only to have it sent to voicemail. Starting to feel nervous, he called Derek next and it didn’t even ring through, just went straight to the automated messaging system. 

Now he was starting to get really nervous, and he wished he had Jennifer’s number. Finally, he rang the station and talked Shawna into telling him if any disturbance calls had come in or if she’d seen the Hales after noon. She humored him for a bit then told him unless he could give a valid reason for freaking out, he needed to hang up and distract himself. After another hour of no responses he gave up and went to the station, stopping to grab food for his dad first as an excuse. However, the sheriff was out on a call when he got there. Dropping the food off, he tried to snoop but was quickly bundled back out the door by Shawna. 

Back at home, he ended up running laps in the backyard for a while, before he was calm enough to work on homework. At 10pm, and still getting no response from either Hale or his dad (beyond vague texts that everything is fine), he decided he was going to go out and look for them. Wrenched the door open, he froze, staring straight into the tear streaked face of Allison. 

“Woah!” Allison had flung herself into him. “Hey, uh, Ally, what’s going on? What’s wrong?” He said all this while managing to get her inside and on the couch. Shaking, Allison pulled back and hugged herself. 

“Oh my god, Stiles, it’s all true, she did it, Kate killed them, all of them, and she _laughed_ about it, she said they were animals and she laughed, there was just so much blood and she just kept cutting him and telling me it didn’t fucking matter because he wasn’t human, that he would heal...oh god, it was horrible, and --” 

“Wait, wait, wait, who was bleeding? Allison, please, who?” Stiles cut in, the churning feeling he’d had in his gut since the afternoon, had turned into a deep dread. 

Allison reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling in several deep breaths. “Der...Derek...she had Derek chained up and electricity going through him, she said they needed him to tell her where Peter was and who the second is...but, she liked it, she liked making him hurt...and then, my dad…” 

Stiles ruthlessly shoved down the fear and panic and laser focused on the girl in front of him. He let go of her hand and grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Allison. I’m sorry. I know your entire world has just come crashing in around you, but right now, I need you to focus. Derek is actively being tortured, I can’t get a hold of Peter, I have been trying all day. So I need you to pull yourself together right now and help me. You can do this, you are strong and brave and kind.” 

She had stopped crying and was looking at him again, taking more deep breaths. Closing her eyes for a few seconds, she opened them and there was a steely glint there now. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry, yes. Ok, my dad came, he was furious at Kate and I tried to get him to go to the police about Kate but he said that is now how we do things. He took me home and he and mom lectured me and took away my phone. They sent me upstairs, but I didn’t go, just hid. They are going to try and set a trap for Peter and then he said they would ‘deal’ with Kate after. They didn’t know she had set the fire, and were furious at her about it but said they have to finish this with Peter first.” 

“Can you find the place they are keeping Derek again?” When she nodded, he pulled out his phone and tried to call Peter one last time. When the alpha didn’t pick up, he ended the call. The fear had turned into a cold rage, not just at Kate but also at Peter for not telling him about this. He got up and paced the room, to go to the police or not was the question now. He looked over at Allison and decided it depended on her next response. “Will you tell this to the police? Would you be willing to give testimony against Kate for a trial?” 

Allison paled but her voice was strong as she answered. “Yes, I won’t be like my family and just let this go.” 

“Ok, let’s go to the station.” 

However, when he and Allison arrived, it was practically deserted. Shawna was off duty and Linda had never liked him. He practically begged her to radio his dad but she refused. He tried calling his dad but no response. During the drive there and while he was frantically trying to get Linda to listen to him, Allison had gotten more determined. When he gave up and the two of them went back outside, she reached out and grabbed his arm. 

“Let’s go get him then.” 

“Are you sure?” Stiles asked, he needed her to be sure. 

“I’m positive.” 

Allison told him where it was so Stiles drove them to the neighboring property. Kate had chosen well, it was an old abandoned dairy farm, so it would have a sturdy building to set up in and it only had one way to drive a car in. If he hadn’t had his werewolf night vision, he never would have been able to guide them through the woods and field to make their way up to the backside of the barn. It was nearing midnight now, the moon was almost full in the sky and Stiles’ skin was buzzing with the pull of it. All his senses were on high alert, as they crouched down in the barn, he could make out the sound of Kate and at least three others. Fuck. 

He made sure that there were no cracks for light to shine through before pulling out his phone. He texted his dad with the GPS location and the message saying, _kate argent has derek hale hostage here. At least three others. w/allison._ After sending that, he texted Peter, _I know where derek is. w/allison. dad knows too._ He then sent the same gps location to the alpha. 

They both froze, when they heard the crunching gravel, signaling the arrival of another car. Slowly, the two of them crept to the side of the barn, thankfully, the hunters were making enough noise to cover any mistakes on the two teens' side. Allison did swear softly when they heard Chris’ voice ring out. 

“Kate, what the hell, Victoria was just brought into the station as a possible accomplice in the abduction of Derek Hale. I thought you said no one would find out about this?” 

“Of course! I told you no one saw. The other beta was there but he got away, he would have just run straight to his alpha, not the police.” 

Stiles phone vibrated against him, he pulled it out to see messages from both Peter and his dad. _leave now._ from his dad and _stay hidden, on my way._ from Peter. He tilted the phone to show Allison, she nodded then gave a small gasp when they heard what Kate said next. 

“Well, shit, I guess we'll just have to kill him then. He’s not cooperating anyways, we can drag his body and dump it in the river, they will never connect it to us.” 

They heard Chris’ heavy sigh. “Dammit Kate, fine. But you are letting me take the lead from now on. Look at the mess you got us all in.” 

“The mess I got us in? That’s rich, Chris, real rich. Maybe if you hadn’t coddled your daughter and let her get these ideas in her head of a fair and just world, then we’d have more help right now, or I don’t know, if you weren’t so soft, then we could have already trapped and killed the alpha and other beta.” 

“We follow the code Kate, we only kill them if they have killed a human.” 

“Like you don’t know they always turn into monsters in the end, I’m just being preemptive about it, trying to kill them before they go feral and kill someone. I’m preventing deaths, Chris, and you know it. Now. Are you going to man up and go kill the animal we have in the barn, or am I going to have to do that too?” They heard the crunch of feet as the two Argent’s turned to go back inside, but before they could Allison leapt up and tore around to the front of the barn. 

“No!” She shouted, “No, you can’t, that’s murder, please dad, you can’t.” 

“Allison? What are you doing here?” Argent’s voice was strained. Stiles mentally cursed then paused, he heard the other footsteps from the hunters inside the barn drift towards the entrance. Allison was screaming at both her dad and Kate. Stiles quickly slid along the barn edge and found a side door. Waiting until he heard the hoarse shout of Argent yelling back, he grabbed the handle and shoved all his weight against it. It snapped under the pressure and he fell through with a slight thump. Breathing in, he almost gagged at the scent of blood, sweat and pain. Breathing deeply through his mouth he was able to follow the smell to find Derek, chained up against one of the milking stalls. Icy hot fury flowed through Stiles as he quickly moved up to the beta and started looking for what was restraining him. Following the wires, he wrenched them out of the car battery. 

Derek’s eyes jerked open and then widened when he saw Stiles. The teen moved back over and pulled the restraints off, Derek slumped down, unable to stand. Wrapping an arm around his packmate, he started guiding Derek back towards the side door, trying to keep his ears on what was going on out front at the same time. Cursing, he heard footsteps start to move back through the barn. He dragged Derek around a corner and pressed them against the wall. 

“Fuck..Boss! The were’s gone.” 

“What?!” Kate’s furious shout was accompanied by Chris Argent cursing as now everyone ran into the barn. 

Shit, shit, shit. Derek was barely conscious against him, he still had a ways to go to reach the side door and he was definitely not a good enough fighter to take out everyone on his own. Even with werewolf strength he still needed some skill to do that. Pulling Derek into an empty stall, he tried to hide the wolf as best he could before he stepped back out and towards the searching hunters. All he had to do was stall them long enough for either his dad or Peter to get there. He reached into his pocket and turned his phone on record just before he stepped straight into the eyelines of both Kate and Chris Argent. 

They both had guns pointed at him instantly. He raised trembling hands and looked around for Allison, he found her on the edge, her face had a red mark on it, he had to bite back a growl at that. By the sharp intake of breath, he knew he hadn’t been entirely successful. He looked back and met the hunter’s eyes with glowing yellow ones. 

“Fuck…” Chris said, still keeping his gun out, but lowering it a tiny amount. “No, Kate. We can’t kill him!” 

“Oh Chris, I’m not that stupid, I’m just going to injure him.” Before he could process that, a shot rang out and white hot pain sizzled through him. Distantly he heard Allison scream as he doubled over, clutching at his side where the bullet had gone through. Kate marched up to him and cracked the gun over his face and down he went to the floor. Allison screamed again. A heavy boot slammed into the injury and he let out a strangled scream himself. 

“Kate!” Blearily opening his eyes, he saw Chris pull Kate back, twisting his head slightly, he saw another hunter was restraining Allison. 

“Come on Chris, it’s not going to kill him, it’ll just get the alpha here faster. He probably doesn’t have a strong enough connection to Derek, but this one…” She smirked down at him. “...this one is his, bitten by him, especially after losing his whole pack and being locked in a coma for six years, a pack member in this much pain will bring him here not thinking clearly.” She pulled out of her brother’s grasp and kicked him again, causing him to curl up tight. 

“Dad! Dad, please, please, dad, daddy.” Allison was sobbing as she thrashed in the hold the hunter had on her. 

Chris looked over at her, he looked wrecked. “Kate, he’s the sheriff’s son, we can’t do this. Don’t you see, this is already why the police are after us.” 

“Nobody will ever know, the only danger is your daughter. Which, seriously, Allison, shut up or I will come over there and shut you up. It’s time for you to grow up. After this is all over, I’m going to tell dad that his granddaughter needs to spend some time with him to toughen up.” 

“Absolutely not.” Chris grabbed Kate’s arm and wrenched her back again. “Gerard will spend time with Allison over my dead body.” 

Kate rolled her eyes and pulled away. “I don’t think that’s up to you anymore.” Chris didn’t let go of her arm, he looked over at Allison, then down at Stiles before back up at Kate. His face hardened. 

“No.This has gone on too far already. We are not killing Stiles and we are not killing Derek Hale. You are going to walk away, right now, take whomever will leave with you but you are going to go.” 

“Seriously?” Kate pulled out of his grasp, half gaping at him. “You are going to cut me loose when there is an alpha werewolf with a vendetta against me? Code over family. You sicken me.” Before Chris could respond, she had brought up her gun and shot him in the shoulder. The force of the bullet knocked him over and onto the ground. Allison screamed and managed to twist out of her captors grasp and run over to where Kate and her father were. She swung at Kate, but the older woman obviously had more training. Kate dodged the blow and swung back, grazing her with the side of the gun. Allison fell over with a cry, clutching her face. Stiles could see blood trickled down. 

Kate spun around the room, glaring at her men. “Well, does anyone else have objections to my methods?” When no one said anything, she gestured to Stiles. “Hanson, string him up where Derek was. Douglas, cuff Chris and put something on the wound. Carter, start working on the trip wires and flash bangs.” 

The minion hunter, Hanson, roughly grabbed Stiles’ arm and began to pull him over to where Derek had been restrained. Stiles was unable to stop his whimper of pain as the wound got stuck on the wood splinters. His head was starting to swim as well, he was pretty sure he had heard a rib crack the last time Kate had kicked him. Hanson tightened metal cuffs around his wrist and secured them over Stiles’ head to the metal pole of the stall. Gasping, Stiles tried to wrench away only to whimper as sharp pain raced through him. Kate was pulling Allison over as well, she pulled the girl behind Stiles and cuffed her further in the stall. 

After this was done, she started barking out further orders while the minion Douglas was stopping Chris’ shoulder from bleeding. Stiles was pulled up just far enough he couldn’t be on his knees but not high enough to stand, which meant he had to either hang on his hands or try to crouch with his legs under him. Stiles just focused on trying to breathe and prayed to the gods and goddesses to keep the hunters from finding Derek. His brain of course, starting running through each and every one of the deities and listing off all the attributes of them. He didn’t realize he was speaking all these thoughts out loud until Kate came back and groaned. 

“Oh my god, how is he still talking, seriously, does this kid never shut up?” She leaned down and grabbed Stiles’ jaw in her hand. “I am going to enjoy beating all the fight out of you, kid, I’m going to break you in so many pieces and then just watch as you knit yourself back together and then do it all over again. We will see how well you talk after that.” 

Stiles tried to pull his head back but he was too weak. His head was feeling better but he could feel blood seeping down from his stomach and his ribs ached. Kate kicked at his legs and they slipped out from under him, making him fall with his arms catching his weight, he couldn’t help crying out the fall jolted his ribs. She laughed at his efforts as she slowly ran a hand down his shirt. 

“I think you have too many layers on, Stiles, let’s fix that for you.” He whimpered and jerked away as she pulled out a knifed and slashed it down his front. She kept slashing until he was screaming and she had pulled away his shirt and hoodie in tatters. She brought a hand up to his face again and ran it down his cheek in a mockery of scenting. 

Stiles snarled and bit down on her hand when he lingered next to his mouth. Swearing, she whipped out her gun and shot him in the leg. He let go with a cry, she lept back and gave him several hard kicks in the ribs again. There was another crack as a rib broke and dizzily he leaned over and heaved out his dinner on the floor. Still swearing she looked like she was about to keep going where a roar reverberated through the barn. Kate instantly had her guns pointed out, and was calling back the minions back to her. 

The lights of the barn flickered out and darkness covered them all. Kate swore loudly but reached down and grabbed Stiles, she deftly undid the cuff and pulled him up to her level as she shoved her gun into his throat. 

“Hey! Peter, I’ve got your beta here, I know you move fast, but no way you move fast enough to stop me from pulling this trigger. You get those lights back on in 30 seconds or goodbye Stiles.” Then she began to count out seconds, Stiles closed his eyes and tried to control the shaking his body was doing. When she hit 21, the lights came back on. 

“Good boy, now, come out then.” 

Peter slowly made his way around the corner. His eyes were dark red, fangs out and hands clenched into fists. Kate gave him a slow, cruel smile. His eyes met Stiles’ gaze, Stiles could feel the rage but also fear coming out of the alpha. He tried to smile but it turned into a pained whimper as Kate jostled his broken rib. Breathing was getting difficult and he distantly wondered if he had a punctured lung. Kate turned the gun towards Peter, Stiles choked out a no when a very familiar voice came booming through the silent barn. 

“This is the police, drop your weapons and put your hands in the air. Now.” With these words, his dad walked into sight, gun pointed at Kate. Stiles looked around and saw Luke, Abe, Tara and Matt all come into view with their guns out. Peter was smirking now at Kate. 

“Sheriff, tell your deputies to drop their guns, or I shoot your son in the head.” Kate moved the gun back to Stiles and tried to put herself more behind him. 

Stiles could feel Kate’s burning rage and met his dad’s eyes. His dad gave him a slow nod and jerked his head towards Luke. Stiles closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and went boneless. The weight surprised Kate into letting him go, she cursed and pointed her gun -- the gunshot echoed through and Kate’s eyes went wide as the bullet went straight through her forehead. 

Stiles fell roughly on his side next to her and stared, barely comprehending, as her sightless eyes stared back into his. Nausea made its way through him again and he barely managed to push himself up before he was puking again. Strong hands helped pull him up and he whimpered trying to curl up around his injuries. 

“Shhh...pup, Stiles, you’re ok, I’ve got you now. You’re ok.” Slowly he was lifted up and laid down on his back with Peter slowly stroking his hand through his hair. Distantly he heard his dad barking out orders and Allison crying out from where she’d been tied up. He whimpered again, Peter moved his hand to Stiles’ neck and with a gasp Stiles felt some of the pain drain out of him. 

“Stiles, where is Derek?” Peter asked him urgently, the pain had drawn back enough by now that Stiles was able to pay better attention. He heard Tara talking to Allison, someone was getting Chris up and the others were arresting all the minions. 

“Towards the side door, hid him…” Stiles said, though every word was painful to choke out. 

“Thank you, you did so good, I’m so proud of you.” Peter murdered before gently setting his head down and moving to get up. “Sheriff,” he called out, “I will need a couple of bullets from Kate’s gun.” 

His dad was there now, his worn face hovering in Stiles’ vision, “What the fuck do you mean? I thought you said you could help Stiles, he looks just as bad.” 

“I can help him but I need those bullets, they have wolfsbane in them which is poisoning his system and keeping him from healing. So please get them while I go collect my nephew, it’s likely he has been poisoned as well.” Peter moved out of Stiles’ vision as his dad crouched down. 

“Ah hell, kid, werewolves, shit.” 

Panic forced Stiles to open his eyes and choke out words. “What? Dad?” 

“Yes, Stiles, Peter told me all about this afternoon while we were looking for Derek. Shit. Kid, you look…” His dad hovered a hand over Stiles’ body, his face looked devastated as he took in all the blood and knife marks on his son’s body. 

“I’m ok...dad...gonna be ok...saw Derek heal from worse than this...ok?” 

Peter was back then, Derek looked more coherent than when Stiles last saw him and was walking on his own now. Stiles couldn’t see any black lines through the body and breathed a sigh of relief. His dad glared at both the Hales as Luke came up to them with a gun in his hand. 

“This the gun, Hale?” Luke asked, his face was stoic, shit, Stiles wondered, how bad did his body look for Luke to go stoic about it. 

Peter took the gun and pulled out a bullet to sniff, ignoring the sheriff’s outraged cry of, hey that’s evidence. Quickly, the alpha pulled one apart and asked for a lighter, kneeling on the floor, Peter made a pile with all the wolfsbane. He paused and told the sheriff and Derek to hold Stiles down. After this was done, he lit the pile on fire and went to rub in all over Stiles chest. The main was worse than when he was stabbed. Stiles screamed and tried to wrench away but the hands held his fast. Finally, it was over and he lay there gasping, he felt something wet hit his face and looked up to see his dad crying. 

He tried to reach up a hand to his father but just then Peter dug into his leg and screamed again as the alpha dug out the bullet that was there before shoving more burning wolfsbane on the injury. He had to repeat the process on the bullet wound on his side as well, which left Stiles feeling floaty and his vision was darkening. He heard his dad shouting something at Peter and he tried to speak up but couldn’t seem to find the words. Then a hand was on his head and he heard his alpha command, “Sleep.” So he did. 

When he woke up again he had to blink as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. His nose was immediately overwhelmed with the smells of cleaners and antiseptics. He whined and tried to curl up, only to jostle against someone whose head was next to him. 

“Stiles? Sheriff, Stiles is waking up.” 

“Son? Stiles, can you hear me?” 

“Dad...? Where…?” 

“You’re in the hospital, son, it’s Friday mid day, god, kid, you scared me good back there.” 

His head felt fuzzy, “I don’t understand, why am I here?” 

Slowly his dad’s face came into focus. The man was frowning and looked away. “Peter gave you something, he said it would hold off some of the healing so we could have enough evidence to prove what Kate and the other hunters did would be justified. He said you healed enough to prevent any major complications but...you were knocked out for a while and I was worried.” 

Stiles struggled to process this, everything still felt a little distant and he couldn’t feel Peter or Derek anywhere close by. Finally, he came up with a different question. “Kate’s really dead right? I didn’t imagine that?” 

“Yes. Kate is dead. Luke took the shot, you did good with dropping like that.” 

“Ok, good, I’m glad...oh shit, Allison, your dad, is he?” 

“He’s going to be ok, the bullet didn’t break any bones and went straight through. He might be under arrest though.” 

“Might?” 

Noah sighed, “We are still figuring out what to charge everyone with. All the other men we arrested have testified that Argent tried to stop Kate and got shot. Whittemore doesn’t think any charges will stick because of that so it is likely he will get let go. The other’s we have got as accomplices to kidnapping and torture on both Derek and Allison’s statements, Tara will be in to get yours in a bit.” 

“Where’s Peter? And Derek?” 

Noah stiffened. “I told them to leave, I still have that right as your father, even though Hale tried to tell me otherwise.” 

Stiles winced, “Dad...he’s my alpha, that means there are instincts and pack bonds, did he tell you about those?” 

“Yes, I got a very long download on a lot of werewolf things and let me tell you, Stiles, when you are better we are going to be having a very long discussion about all of this and why you didn’t tell me first.” 

Stiles opened his mouth to reply but his dad cut him off and started asking Allison about something completely unrelated. Stiles gave it up for the moment and let himself sink down into the bed, it wasn’t very comfortable, but it did the trick. 

Tara came in not long after that and got his statement. Thankfully, the doctors agreed he could be released later that afternoon. By the time he had made it home, he was exhausted and was really ready for the healing to kick in. He felt anxious and nervous though, tonight was technically his first full moon and he really didn’t want to spend it without his pack. His pleas to his dad to please let Peter come over were ignored. 

“Dad...you don’t understand, Scott, like, dad...he almost killed me his first full moon. I need Peter, please?” 

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better? Hell, kid, isn’t there some magic way to get rid of this? I’m starting to think I should have shot him when I had the chance.” 

This threat made Stiles panic so bad, he hyperventilated and almost passed out. His dad relented to the point of letting Stiles call the alpha and talk to him. Peter was all soothing words and reassured him that because his control was so good already and because of his injuries that the full moon should cause no issues. Stiles was not ashamed to admit he cried on the phone, at that point Peter made him hand the phone back to his dad. The end result was that Peter was allowed to come over for a few hours just as the moon rose. They had to sit on the couch barely touching and Peter kept a cold gaze on the sheriff the whole time. It ended up being a miserable evening and Stiles ended up blowing up at his dad after Peter left. He knew he should be cutting his dad a break, the man had just had a lot dropped on him at once but it was so hard when all his instincts were screaming for his alpha. 

Allison had come home with them as she was refusing to go to her home. Victoria had been released she had come in to take Chris home and they had gotten into a huge fight in the hospital hall about it. His dad had given him back his phone so he was able to call and talk with Peter, which made him feel better though still upset his dad wasn’t letting the alpha come and stay with him. 

On Saturday, the sheriff had to go into the station to make his own statements and handle other cases. Almost as soon as he was gone, Peter and Derek showed up, along with Jennifer. Derek was all healed now and Stiles grumbled jealousy. 

Peter flicked his ear and said, “Well, don’t get shot and then parade yourself around police officers next time and you’ll be able to heal just as fast. Jennifer has some more potions for you to drink and then you’ll feel a lot better. She will just need to see you before you go in for your follow up appointment so she can make it look like you are healing at the pace you should be.”

Allison came out just then and paused before looking over at Peter. She smelled nervous and the alpha cooly looked back at her. She had so far been avoiding most contact with the Hales. She had apologized brokenly to Derek earlier and he had uncomfortably told her it wasn’t her fault. Peter had informed her that going straight to Stiles made her innocent in his mind. However, that didn’t mean there wasn’t still tension between all of them. Finally, she asked, “Are you going to kill him?” 

Peter sighed as he leaned back into the couch, absently rubbing Stiles’ leg, which was thrown over the alpha’s lap. “No. I’m not going to kill him. We will have to be on our guard, but I do believe he’ll follow the code. Especially since it was law enforcement who came after Kate. I do intend to sue your family for damages to mine though.” 

Allison gave him a slightly shaky smile, “I think that is fair. Umm, well, I can go back upstairs and let you pack bond…” She flushed slightly and turned to go, Derek, surprisingly was the one to stop her. 

“Wait, Allison, you saved my life, you turned away from your family for it, you don’t have to hide from us. Join us, please.” 

She shot a hesitant look at Peter but he smiled at her as well, so he came into the room and settled on one of the chairs. Stiles started up Mulan, claiming they needed something to distract them all from everything. Jennifer didn’t stay long, but before she left gave Stiles strict instructions for all the potions she had brought. Stiles was already feeling a lot better but he still listened carefully. 

When the movie finished, Derek and Allison moved to the kitchen where Derek started on dinner with Allison helping. Stiles shuffled himself over so he could be lying almost completely on top of Peter and contentedly let himself drift in and out of sleep. A throat clearing woke him up, before he could scramble and potentially fall though, Peter’s arms tightened to hold him in place. 

“Noah.” Peter said, neutrally as he helped Stiles more carefully sit up on the couch. Hesitantly, Stiles looked at his dad and winced. The sheriff was glaring daggers at Peter but also shot a hard look at his son. Wincing, Stiles tried to sink into the couch to avoid his dad’s gaze. Peter was stiff, next to him, even though the alpha had to have known the sheriff was home. 

“Hale. I thought I made my opinions on you being near my son loud and clear yesterday.” 

“You did, however, I believe I also made it clear on what rules I would and would not follow in regards to Stiles. He is almost 18 years old, Sheriff, who is an incredibly intelligent young man, who is capable of knowing his own mind in these matters as well.” 

“No. You do not get to turn this back on me Hale. Not when you are the one who attacked my son and turned him into this thing without his permission. I can see what kind of man you are and how you are manipulating him away from me, not in my house, I still have the law behind me here. Now. Get out.” 

“Is that what you think?” Stiles said, his voice breaking. Startled, his dad looked at him. “That I’m just a thing now? Not a person...just a thing. I...fuck dad, I tried to tell you, the very next day, I told you it sounded insane and crazy but you promised to listen but then you ran out and were too upset with me to listen. That was before I trusted Peter, it was when I still thought Scott and you would be my pack, but you weren’t. Neither of you were. You avoided me all weekend and Scot...well...he thinks I’m a monster too.” 

His dad looked broken and made a move towards Stiles but he flinched away again and into Peter. The alpha wrapped an arm around Stiles’ shoulders and gave the sheriff a hard look. 

“I am not going anywhere. If Stiles asks me to leave, then I will.” 

“I’d go with you. Dad, if you make him leave, I’m going with him. Sure, I’m not 18 yet but I’ll just keep running away until I am. I don’t want to though, please don’t make me...I want to fix this with you, just don’t...don’t send him and Derek away, please?” 

All the fight seemed to go out of Noah at that moment and his shoulders slumped. “Yeah...ok, son, ok. I’ll try, I’ll try. You aren’t a monster, Stiles, I’m sorry, you’re right, I fucked up.” 

Stiles shakily got to his feet and let his dad wrap him up in a hug. They were interrupted when dinner was ready and they all sat down to a delicious meal. Conversation started a little stilted and awkward but they were all trying, which was the important part. After dinner, Peter and Derek went home and Stiles begged exhaustion to go to bed early. His dad stayed downstairs and soon Stiles could hear the TV on. Leaving the bathroom, he padded back into his bedroom and grinned at the alpha werewolf lying on his bed.

Crawling up the bed he let Peter pull him into a deep kiss. He kissed desperately back, running his hands all over Peter, he had to bite back a moan as the man’s hands slipped under his shirt and ran up his back. Panting, he made himself pull back slightly. 

“We shouldn’t...Peter...my dad…” 

With a deep sigh, Peter stopped, rolling Stiles onto his side and running a hand over his head. “You are going to be the greatest test my patience has ever had.” 

“I’m sorry...I know it’s stupid, it’s just an age --” 

“No, shh...that’s not what I meant. The last thing I ever want to do is pressure you or make you feel like you have to do anything for me. I am capable of waiting. You are worth it.” 

Stiles melted into Peter’s embrace. The wolf crooned into his ear and rumbled deep in his chest. Stiles gripped him tight. There was still so much to figure out, Allison’s parents might want revenge, his dad was barely accepting him, they still had to deal with Scott, but this right here, this was perfect. He had his pack, Derek, Peter and Jennifer and he was pretty sure they would have Allison soon enough. He reached back up and kissed Peter one more time before saying. 

“I’m not saying I’ll make you wait until the exact day, I just...I want this to be more than lust, I want you, all of you, and well, my first time better not be in my childhood twin bed with my dad watching baseball downstairs. I expect you to romance the shit out of me alpha.” 

Peter chuckled, “That, I can do. I will make it a goal to romance the shit out of you, as you say, just tell me when you want more sweetheart and don’t worry, I’ll make it good for you.” 

“I know, I trust you, alpha.” 

Peter rumbled his approval and placed one more gentle kiss to Stiles’ lips. Clinging to him, Stiles let his alpha soothe away his fears and drift off into slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just the epilogue to go now! I have started the sequel, experimenting with different POVs for it. It's definitely going to be a long one too...I also have to come up with more original plot since I canon diverged so much in this story. Question though, would you all prefer I go ahead and make this a series so if you wanted to book mark the series you could or wait to make it a series until I have the sequel ready to start posting?


	8. Epilogue

The afternoon shadows were long and if one looked close enough, you could see the sliver of the new moon in the sky. Fitting, Peter Hale thought, as he gazed over the remains of his family home. A new moon, for a new start. He smiled as he heard the crunch of leaves behind him. A new start and a new pack. He didn’t acknowledge the new presence, no reason to make this any easier on them. No reason to give anyone fuel to say later that he had done any of this without permission. 

He had known she would come to him. He’d been hoping for this outcome longer but as soon as she had chosen Stiles over family, he knew he had her. He closed his eyes and breathed in the scents around him, listened to the rustle of the wind in the trees, the chattering of the squirrels and the thump of the young heartbeat behind him. 

This was all turning out even better than he had hoped for. All because of Stiles. He’d known as soon as he caught the boy’s scent, the day after he’d become an alpha, that the boy would be his. He’d been going to wait at first to claim him. Wait until he’d finished his revenge. Wait until it was safe. Instinct, however, could only be held off for so long. Well, he’d admit to himself if no one else, it hasn’t been as much instinct as _want, desire_ that made him claim the boy that night in the hospital. He was so glad he had though. 

With Stiles had come Derek, he hadn’t even been planning to try and woo his nephew back to him, his anger was too strong at being abandoned. But then he had felt Derek’s fear for the boy, and loyalty, and Peter would never write off such loyalty. Derek was now his completely, not just there for Stiles anymore. Peter offering forgiveness for the transgression with the huntress had bound Derek to him forever. 

More than Derek though, Stiles brought him stability, sanity and a challenge. Oh the boy was clever and frustrating in turns, but it all made him such a sweeter prize to be won. Stiles had been the one to challenge him to think first and act second. Something he should have been doing all along but in the face of the threat against his pack, he had been finding it too hard to slow down and be patient. But now, Kate was dead, hunters were in jail, Christopher wasn’t a threat currently and after the events of tonight was unlikely to ever be one. 

The heartbeat behind him slowly steadied into a calmer rhythm and the girl moved forward to stand beside him. He tilted his head towards her, taking in the dark black, purple and green bruising that marred the left side of her face. She looked at him, only a scant few inches shorter, and licked her lips. He could see the struggle on her face. He raised an eyebrow, she looked down, he could taste the shame coming off of her. He sighed internally but was careful to let none of that show on the outside. 

Victory was so close, all he had to do was wait, he’d been laying the groundwork since early Friday morning when they had all been in the hospital. Since she had tearfully apologized to Derek and he’d pulled her aside after, hugged her and told her she had no obligation to repay the debt her family owed his. That going to Stiles was enough for him. He hadn’t done much after that, just little comments sprinkled into the conversation as he explained things to Noah or Stiles, how your pack was your family and how hard it was to have so few pack bonds. 

Her voice interrupted these musings. “You told me that it wasn’t my responsibility to offer apologies for my family and you were right. No apology or anything I could ever do would make up for it.” Her voice, to her credit, was quiet but strong, it was laced with conviction. “I am here to offer the little I can, it’s not enough, but it’s all that I have.” 

Peter finally turned to her. “This is not a small thing to offer, nor is it something you can ever take back. It can’t be done just out of guilt, Allison, you need to want this with everything you are.” 

She met his eyes and nodded. “I know, I want it.” 

He hummed thoughtfully, as if he was considering it. “I accept, but first, do you Allison Argent, except that I, Peter Hale will be your alpha?” 

“I do.” 

“Do you accept that taking this bite puts you under my authority and you will obey me in regards to anything pack related?” 

“I do.” 

“Do you promise to put the needs of the pack first, over the needs of your own? Do you accept that the pack prioritized over any blood family?” He could feel the thrum of the ancient magic working it’s way between them as the words seemed to hang in the air. He inhaled deeply, yes, this was the sweetest revenge he could ever have hoped for. The only blood daughter of the Argent name left, here, right now, giving him her oath. 

“I do.” 

The strength in her voice, made him smile as he knelt down next to her. The magic was flowing now strong between them and accepting her as pack. She would be an asset in more than her name. He looked up and met her eyes as his own turned red, he pulled her shirt up to expose her stomach and side. Still holding her gaze, he let his fangs slip free and brought them up to the pale skin. He could hear her heart beat faster, the intake of breath as she tensed for the bite. He let his eyes close and let himself get lost for just a second, in this moment. The magic swirling around them was beautiful. He could feel the strength of the alpha spark as it readied itself to accept a new pack member. Leaning forward, he gently let his fangs sink into her skin, the bond snapped into place and he felt the rush of glee and power that came with making a new wolf. 

Throwing back his head, he howled, letting the sound echo through the forest. He would build a strong pack and he would return the Hale name to the place where it should be. This right here, tonight, was just the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has read this story through to completion! I am working on the sequel (got one chapter finished) and will probably start posting it when I'm about a third of the way through so I can make sure I am on the right track plot wise before committing fully. It'll probably be a bit slower going as I have a lot more plot threads to weave in (and I've so completely diverged from canon I have to figure who my villain is or how to make Gerard a longer and bigger villain). 
> 
> I have made it a series so you can bookmark it to stay updated! 
> 
> I also have an itch to try and see if I can write some Steter smut, if I do and I like it, I think I'll post it as a one shot in the series so I don't need to tag my main story underage (and in case people want to skip the smut).


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